A man in Utah accidentally fell off a 40 to 50-foot cliff while he was out riding on his motorcycle. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, he was found by authorities are after his smartwatch sent a crash alert.
Authorities say the man was on his motorcycle traveling near the Warner Valley area of Washington County on Saturday, February 4, when he apparently fell off a cliff. Fortunately, his smartwatch sent out alert notifications to nearby emergency stations. As a result, search and rescue crews, deputies, and a Life Flight helicopter were dispatched to help and rescue him.
They were able to locate the motorcycle rider and stabilized him first prior to transporting him to a hospital, where he can be treated for serious injuries. He was found to be in critical condition, but officials say he is expected to recover.
Officials said the man had stopped on the cliff’s edge to rest, tried to put his foot down, but unluckily he fell off the cliff with his bike. He fell about 40-50 feet, hit a ledge, and then fell a further 80-100 feet down a “scree slope” (a steep mass of loose rock debris on the mountain slope).
While initially the type of smartwatch the man was wearing wasn’t clearly identified, reporters indicate that there’s a possibility that he was wearing an Apple Watch, as this device and iPhone have an alert feature called Crash Detection.
According to Apple, the Crash Detection on the Apple Watch or iPhone is “designed to detect severe car crashes — such as front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers —involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and other passenger cars.”
When a crash occurs, the Apple Watch sounds an alarm and “taps your wrist, and checks in with you on the screen. If you have only your watch, the screen displays an Emergency Call slider. If you have a watch with cellular or your watch is connected to Wi-Fi, it can call emergency services.”