Man rescued by iPhone's crash detection feature after falling off a cliff

LA County Sheriff's Department told ABC News that they found the man at the bottom of a ravine, bleeding. (Image: @Resqman/Twitter)

It is safe to say that technology is a boon and bane. However, it turned out to be a boon for a man who accidentally drove off a cliff. He plunged nearly 400 feet but survived. The police found out about his location because his phone triggered an alarm that went off and alerted them.

LA County Sheriff's Department told ABC News that they found the man at the bottom of a ravine, bleeding. The man was discovered off a windy road along Mount Wilson. "The majority of calls we get there over the sides usually are fatal," Mike Leum, a search and rescue group leader for the LA County Sheriff's Department told the news outlet.

The search and rescue team received a report of a crash at around 11 pm on Friday. The volunteers learned about the accident because of the man’s phone. Well, he had a crash detection program in his iPhone 14 that automatically alerts authorities if a phone’s or an Apple watch’s sensors detect a “crash” or “hard fall”.

RESCUE: At 10:51pm on Fri we were alerted to a car 400’ over a cliff by the driver’s iPhone 14 crash detection. Location was Mt Wilson Rd. After locating him we guided in an @LACoFireAirOps copter. Suffered head trauma. @LASDHQ @CVLASD @KCBSKCALDesk @NBCLA @ABC7 @FOXLA @cnnbrk pic.twitter.com/jXdpuDL7Hk

— Mike Leum (@Resqman) July 22, 2023

"We're talking about hundreds of miles of mountain roads where these people could have gone over the side. So I'm not convinced that they would have ever been found,” Leum added.

According to the news outlet, an operator at the communication centre called the nearest police station. When the police arrived at the site, they could hear a man yelling. The vehicle was discovered approximately 400 feet below the road, as per CBC News.