Apple Watch is popular with consumers as it helps track their health and fitness levels. Apart from these, the smartwatch is equipped with an SOS feature that can aid one in an emergency as a 22-year-old college student from Maryland discovered recently. For Casey Bennett, his Apple Watch was literally a life savior when the student met with an unfortunate accident.
What happened to Bennett?
The incident happened on April 6 when Casey was hanging out with his friends. They went to Target and got a bag full of jelly beans before heading toward the campus.
After dropping one of his female friends, Casey was driving home when his Jeep was hit by another car.
Casey’s vehicle flipped over badly, resulting in the airbags getting deployed. He found himself dangling from the front seat with the seat belt holding him. His iPhone fell from the center console of the jeep, directly on his nose. While he was trying to figure out how to get out from the mangled car, he pressed the side buttons of his Apple Watch for around six seconds. The incident happened near one of the busy intersection in Catonsville.
Apple Watch the savior
What happened when Casey did this was that the SOS feature on the device activated. It automatically called 911 and the smartwatch also sent a text to all the emergency contacts on his list.
Apple Watch informed the recipients about the emergency and his location.
According to him, someone else had called 911 and informed them about the accident. After six minutes, the team came to the spot. The firefighters helped him to climb through the sunroof of the tilted jeep and he was taken to the ambulance.
The emergency message which was sent from his smartwatch had already alerted his father who was near his home.
He rushed to the location to meet him and accompanied Casey to the hospital. Due to the accident, which kept him restrained to the front seat, Casey suffered a bruise on his chest. He also hurt his knees after getting hit by the side door.
Emergency feature
The emergency SOS feature was introduced for the smartwatch in 2016, with the watchOS 3 update.
By holding the side button on the wearable for a few seconds – like Casey did – one can alert 911. One need not go via several apps to alert one’s emergency contact that they are in a concerning situation. After the incident Casey sent a message to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, thanking him for including the emergency option in the Apple Watch. Apple responded that they were glad he was safe.
