Who's Your Emergency Contact?

LESSONS FROM A LIFE-ALTERING MOMENT

I promised you last week to share the life lessons I’ve been learning since coming to an abrupt stop and hitting an concrete barrier at 61 mph—a detail I found out after the fact because of the “black box” installed in my car.

Did you know iPhones and Apple Watches can detect a car crash? That’s a feature I was unaware of before December 28, 2022. It is a fun function I could have lived without knowing existed, but I am thankful for today. Oh, the joy of technology.

Sitting bewildered in the driver’s seat, trying to explain to Cindy that we were just in an accident, I had the mental clarity to find my phone, which was thankfully still tethered to its charging cable like a lifeline to emergency services on the other end.

While I’m using my phone to call 9-1-1, my watch is doing its magic and calling on my behalf. So now I have an operator talking to me on two devices. And at the same time, the emergency contacts on my phone were notified via text.

“It looks like Timothy Eldred has been in a crash at this location.”