Apple Watch’s Fall Detection Helps Paramedics Locate Bike Crash Victim

One of the features Apple introduced to the Apple Watch Series 4 is fall detection. This means that when you fall and you don’t respond in a timely manner, your watch will then call emergency services to your location. The feature was designed with the elderly in mind but as it turns out, it is quite useful in general.

Take for example a man by the name of Bob Burdett. Burdett was mountain biking near Spokane when he got into an accident. However, the only thing that Burdett remembers is waking up inside of an ambulance, which apparently was called on his behalf by his Apple Watch.

The watch had noticed that Burdett had taken a hard fall and prompted him to respond, to which he didn’t. It then sent out notices to Burdett’s son who rushed to the area, but apparently was beaten to the punch by emergency services who had already arrived and transported him to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

It is unclear how serious of a condition Burdett was in and if he would have been fine had he eventually woken up on his own. However, the good news is that it looks like Burdett is doing just fine and is recovering with clear X-Rays and CT scans. This is not the first time we’re hearing about the fall detection feature possibly saving a life, so if you don’t have the watch, perhaps it might be worth turning it on (it is off by default if you’re under 65).

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gadgets
Tags: Apple Watch, Smartwatch, Wearable Tech