The iPhone setting that may save your life: But do YOU know how to turn it on?

A woman involved in a horror attack on the same day of the tragic Cardiff car accident has shared a potentially life-saving tip for iPhone users after her handset automatically sent her mother an SOS alert following the accident.

Nicole Samuel begged Twitter users to “list someone as an emergency contact” and shared a screenshot of a text message her mother received indicating her location.

Police arrived on the scene and found Miss Samuel’s car on the roof, but she managed to get to safety.

Three days later, Miss Samuel tweeted: ‘It could be the difference between life and death. Please, please, please stop what you’re doing and add a family member [as an emergency contact on your phone]’.

Miss Samuel’s accident in Aberdare, Wales, was on Saturday 4 March – the same day a car carrying five friends crashed less than 25 miles away in Cardiff.

Darcy Ross, 21, Eve Smith, 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24, died after their VW Tiguan left the A48 and crashed into trees in the early hours of Saturday March 4.

Two friends Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were in critical condition when they were found in the wreckage.

Search teams had searched the area for nearly 48 hours after the five friends were last seen at a petrol station in Cardiff at 2am on Saturday, March 4.

Nicole wrote on Twitter that she enlisted her mom to be her emergency contact, telling her followers she can’t “emphasize” enough the importance of having this feature activated on your phone

The five victims of the accident were returning from a night out in Cardiff when their white VW Tiguan went off the road at high speed and flew into trees and undergrowth. Three have died, two are seriously injured and are in hospital. Police have not released the names of the deceased

The automatic message can be seen in the screenshot of the message. It says “Crash detected SOS.

Nicole Samuel called emergency services from this approximate location after the iPhone detected a crash.

“You’re receiving this message because Nicole listed you as an emergency contact.”

Nicole wrote in full on Twitter that she empowered her mom to be an emergency contact, writing, “I can’t stress this enough!! This text was sent to my mom from my iPhone after my car accident.

Putting someone on the list as an emergency contact can mean the difference between life and death. Please, please stop what you’re doing and add a family member or share this with someone else.”

Following this advice, other users have commented on how “important” it is to share this feature.

One user tweeted, “Glad you shared this girl! I hope you’re doing well and recovering quickly.’

Another said: “Brilliant and important feature.”

A third added: ‘I did this. Save your life. Best Thing Ever!!!’

One person questioned how exactly her phone knew she was involved in a crash and wrote, “Hope you are well!! just wondering how your phone contacted emergency services or do you have to press the button on the side?’

And Nicole replied back, ‘No, you don’t press any buttons, it detects the crash itself and does it all for you!! It’s unbelievable.’

While another person reiterated the importance of having this on your phone, he said: ‘As an emergency operator, I can confirm that these calls go straight through to 999 and we transfer them to the police if no one speaks to us. If you DO get on the line, we can also transfer you to the other emergency services you request.’

And a fifth person wrote, “Glad you’re okay! This is such a great feature. For those asking, crash detection is on the new iPhones as a safety feature – if it thinks you’ve had a crash and you don’t respond to your phone, it automatically calls 911! Didn’t know anything about contacts either!’

While another person said that the same feature can be activated for the Apple Watch as well.

They wrote: “My dad had a bad fall while wearing his Apple Watch and he notified me and my sister so we could take action right away. Luckily he was just a little bruised, but as they live almost two hours away, it’s really comforting that we’ve been informed.’

How to enable emergency SOS on your iPhone

Nicole wrote that enabling this feature is “quite frankly a life saver.” Here’s how to add an emergency contact on your iPhone:

1. Open the Health app and tap your profile picture
2. Tap Medical ID
3. Tap Edit, then scroll to Emergency Contacts
4. Tap the Add button to add an emergency contact
5. Tap a contact and add their relationship
6. Tap Done to save your changes

How to do this for Android

You can use the Personal Safety app to store and share your emergency information.

1. Open the Security app on your phone
2. Tap Security Check
3. Select your reason and duration
4. Tap Next
5. Select your contacts
6. Tap Enable