Emergency services were summoned by the iPhone's Crash Detection feature to a fatal accident that saw five people injured and four horses die.
iPhone 14 has Crash Detection
Police were notified at 1:45 am on Monday that there was a car accident near the Batman Highway at Rowella, Tasmania. A white Ford Ranger left the highway and hit a tree stump, rolling the attached horse trailer.
Five vehicle occupants aged from 14 to 20 were taken to Launceston General Hospital for treatment, with one 18-year-old passenger moved by air ambulance to Melbourne having suffered serious injuries, reports ABC. Members of the Yoles Harness Racing Stables team were involved in the accident.
Two of the four horses in the rolled trailer died immediately after the crash, according to police, with the other two euthanized at the scene.
Emergency services arrived within just eight minutes of the crash taking place, with the fast response down to a combination of police happening to be in the area, and an alert from an iPhone 14. The Crash Detection feature notified police of an impact, informing them of where to go.
On the Crash Detection feature itself, Tasmania Police Inspector Ruth Orr offered that in a "case where people had lost consciousness in a crash like this, it is certainly something that alerts police quickly." Inspector Orr advised drivers to be more careful on Tasmanian roads, with injuries and crashes already "significantly higher than last year."
Police are urging anyone who saw the vehicle and trailer before the crash took place to get in contact.
Apple's emergency notification feature has undergone a lot of bad press since launch, with false positives occurring for skiiers and rollercoaster riders, but it has proven itself useful in getting aid. In one case in December, a man was notified of his wife's nearby car crash, enabling him to help at the scene before paramedics arrived.