Apple Watch Saves Mountain Biker After Accident

A safety feature of the Apple Watch has been credited with saving a man’s life, after he a mountain biking accident left him unconscious.

Bob Burdett from Spokane, Washington was mountain biking last Sunday in Riverside State Park. Bob was riding down Doomsday Hill when he flipped his mountain bike at the bottom. He hit his head as he fell and was knocked unconscious. Thankfully, Bob had enabled the Hard Fall emergency feature on his Apple Watch.

Hard Fall is a safety feature of Series 4 and Series 5 Apple Watches. When it detects a hard fall, it first prompts the wearer to contact emergency services. If there is no response, the watch then taps their wrist and sounds an audible alarm. If no movement is detected after 1 minute, the Apple Watch automatically contacts emergency services, notifies their preset emergency contact, and broadcasts their location to both.

The Apple Watch notifications were sent to Gabe Burdett because he was set as his father’s emergency contact. But Bob had already been collected by EMS by the time Gabe arrived at Doomsday Hill.

That’s because the watch called 911 and provided Emergency Services with Bob’s location. Within half an hour, Bob had been taken by Ambulance to the hospital, while the Fire Department took his mountain bike to their station.

Gabe posted about his family’s experience on Facebook, which subsequently went viral with 600000 reactions, 500000 shares, and 500 comments.

Gabe explained that the Apple Watch kept him informed of all changes. Not long after arriving at Doomsday Hill, he received a location update with a map that showed his father was now at the Sacred Heart Medical Center.

The Facebook post says his father is thankfully recovering well, but obviously still a little sore. He also urged all Apple Watch owners to switch on the Hard Fall function, saying it is “amazing technology and so glad he had it.”

Source: Gabe Burdett Facebook