Car falls off 300-feet cliff, Apple iPhone 14's Crash Detection feature saves couple's life

Couple were able to get help by rescue helicopter in half hour after the car crash

This year, though iPhone 14 series saw moderate hardware upgrade over the predecessor, it came with noteworthy value-added features such as Crash Detection and SOS Emergency via Satellite.

Like the potential life-saving heart health tracking features of Apple Watches, the latest iPhone 14 series too, now has begun to make headlines for the right reasons.

In the latest instance, the Crash Detection feature of the iPhone 14 has saved two precious lives, whose car fell off a cliff.

Young couple Cloe Fields (24) and Christian Zelada(23) earlier this week on Tuesday while driving through the two-lane Angeles Crest Highway, their Hyundai car slipped down the 300-feet down the Monkey Canyon. The car tumbled down the creek and landed upside down with glasses of the doors crushed.

Fortunately, both Fields and Zelada did not suffer serious injury to their body, but were helpless down at the creek. The first thing they realised was to search for their phone to dial for help and finally, after a long search, Zelada found her shattered iPhone 14, which she bought a couple of weeks ago. To her surprise, the iPhone had already detected the car had crashed and was able to send the SOS emergency rescue call to the local response team.

iPhone 14's Crash Detection feature. Credit: Apple

Within half hour, the local county rescue team was able to dispatch a helicopter 18 miles away from the crash site and both the survivors were rushed to the nearest health centre and medical aid was provided, reported The Washington Post.

Fields and Zelada are very lucky to have survived such a major car crash. "When we have vehicles that go over the side, in that particular part of the roadway … we’re normally dealing with a fatality," John Gilbert, the coordinator for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Montrose search-and-rescue team, said to the Post.

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For the uninitiated, Apple iPhone 14 ( & 14 Pro) models come with a new generation dual-core accelerometer (which can detect G-force measurements of up to 256Gs) and this works with a new high dynamic gyroscope, a barometer (to detect cabin pressure changes within the car), the GPS for additional input for speed changes, and the microphone (to recognize loud noises typified by severe car crashes).

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In addition to advanced hardware components, Apple has developed motion algorithms based on over a million hours of real-world driving and crash record data to provide even better accuracy.

Must read | Apple iPhone 14 review: Incremental upgrade

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