Agents in Martin County (east) received a call Tuesday night with an automated message, said the local sheriff’s office chief assistant, John Budensiek.
“The owner of this iPhone was in a serious car accident and is not answering the phone. The emergency location is latitude 27.1195, longitude – 80.481, with an estimated search radius of seven meters”indicated the message that was repeated in a loop.
When they went to the indicated place, near the rural town of Indiantown, the agents found the vehicle overturned in the water and its driver, a 38-year-old man, immobilized and with signs of hypothermia.
The saving call came from his latest generation cell phone, capable of detecting a traffic accident and sending an audio message to the emergency services with the coordinates of the accident, if the owner does not cancel this function within 20 seconds.
“That man was alone, his car was submerged,” Officer Budensiek said. “And if that phone hadn’t made that call for him, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have been located until dawn five hours later.”
“Things would have happened to him without that call,” added the sheriff’s chief assistant, who recalled that hypothermia can be fatal.
“And we’re in South Florida, so there are animals in those channels — there are alligators, snakes, and different things that can also be a hazard on top of what was already going on,” he said.
The agents managed to get the driver out of the vehicle, who was taken to a hospital, where he received care for minor injuries.
“We believe that in the future that technology will certainly help our community,” Budensiek said of the robocall.
Source: Ambito
