Driver's Apple Watch dials 911 after Racine County crash

 

RACINE COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- It wasn't a person who called 911 after a crash in Racine County over the weekend. It was a robot: an automated call made by the driver's Apple Watch.

Apple Watch can sense how fast it's moving. When there's an abrupt stop, the watch calls out for help, dialing 911.

This is the call that came in to dispatch Sunday.

Dispatch: "Racine County 911, where's your emergency?"

Caller: "The owner of this Apple Watch was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their watch."

That's all Kansasville Fire and Rescue had to go on when this 911 call came in early Sunday.

"Our amazing dispatchers, they get this call, and I can just imagine the chill going up their spine," said Kansasville Fire Chief Ronald Molnar.

With no one on the other end, dispatch can't ask questions.

"Where are you? How many people? Is anybody hurt? Is anybody trapped? Is the vehicle on fire? Are you in traffic?" said Chief Molnar.

Piecing it together led Kansasville to discover a woman alone in a GMC pickup truck. When the road curved at Cunningham Road on Highway 11, she went straight, shaving off part of one tree and then knocking another down.

The homeowner who lives here planted a row of pine trees with her family some 50 years ago and is sad to see one of them go, but glad nobody was killed.

"I hate to see it go. That big of a tree and they start all over, and I know I won't be here to see it grow that high," said Joyce Kerkman.

Today, you can't even see where the stump's at.

"It's hard to find. I know," said Kerkman.

Joyce Kerkman's lawn is still littered with debris from the crash. Six months ago, the Kansasville Fire Department got its very first 911 call from an Apple Watch. In that rollover, the victim was trapped and unconscious.

"If it wasn't for that Apple Watch, like we said, it would've probably been a minimum of two to three hours before daylight, before the sun came up, before anybody could've possibly seen that vehicle," said Chief Molnar.

That victim survived. In the weekend crash, the driver, a 39-year-old woman, was cited with a first offense OWI. As the technology evolves, Chief Molnar's hoping Apple may make a change, allowing for an open mic between dispatch and the vehicle.

"So the dispatchers can hear what's going on on the other end. So, if you hear somebody screaming, somebody gasping for air, or 'help me,' that kind of thing," said Chief Molnar.

The technology's called "crash detection" and it's turned on by default on supported Apple Watch models and supported iPhones, too.

This link from Apple has details, plus an explanation on how to set up your emergency contacts which can also get an automated call if a crash is suspected by Apple.