Cloe Fields and Christian Zelada were driving through the Angeles National Forest near Monkey Canyon when an impatient driver pulled up behind them. Attempting to allow the driver to pass, Zelada tried to pull over. Instead, he lost control of the vehicle, which skidded out over the highway’s edge and dropped about 300 feet, flipping and hitting trees as it went.
Miraculously, the couple survived the crash with only minor injuries.
“We only had bruises on our faces, cuts and a little bit of neck pain and, now, a mild concussion,” Fields said in an interview with the New York Times.
Even after the initial crash, Fields and Zelada were hardly in the clear. The couple found themselves miles from civilization with injuries, no cell service and temperatures quickly approaching freezing. But Fields’ iPhone 14 was already working on a plan.
Using technology that debuted barely a month ago, the phone had already realized there was a crash and that emergency services needed to be alerted. Despite its screen being cracked in the crash, the iPhone instructed Fields on how to contact first responders through Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite.
According to an Apple press release announcing the introduction of the service in November, the “technology enables users to message with emergency services while outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.”
Apple’s Emergency SOS team was able to contact local authorities and provide them with Fields and Zelada’s location. A helicopter was dispatched to rescue the couple within 30 minutes of the incident, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Calling Fields and Zelada’s survival a “miracle in itself,” Sgt. John Gilbert, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Montrose Search and Rescue Team, told the Los Angeles Times that the crash was the first in the area he could recall that did not result in a fatality.
Satellite phones have existed for years, allowing users to call or text from remote locations, but only recently have iPhones harnessed the technology to connect via satellite.
“Providing Emergency SOS via satellite is an important breakthrough that will save lives. The critical work being done by Apple to create innovative new solutions to support 911 providers and first responders is a huge step forward in protecting Californians and the broader public during an emergency situation,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, in the Apple press release.
Fields and Zelada would certainly agree.
“Their technology in this case was extremely useful,” Gilbert told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the crashed vehicle was not visible from the nearby roadway.
Counting their blessings, Zelada recalled to the New York Times what he had told Fields in the aftermath of the crash: “We were in the one in 100 million who get to walk away with our lives and our limbs.”
