iPhone helps California responders find man who drove off 400-foot cliff, ejected from car

California first responders rescued a man who drove off a 400-foot cliff and was ejected from his vehicle Friday after they received a crash alert sent by his phone, rescuers said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department search and rescue team responded to a crash at the Angeles National Forest after receiving an iPhone Crash Detection alert, which is designed to recognize severe vehicle crashes, around 11 p.m. PST, group leader Mike Leum told USA TODAY.

“Without that timely notification of the iPhone Crash Detection, nobody witnessed him going over, who knows if he ever would have been found.” Leum said. “He most likely would have bled out in a matter of an hour or so.”

The team was able to quickly locate the driver, whose name was not immediately released, using the phone’s GPS location, Leum said. When responders arrived, they could hear the man’s voice, but they didn’t know exactly where he was.

Responders called in a helicopter unit to find the man, but due to “heavy tree canopy” the unit was not able to see the crash site, Leum said.

Responders locate driver who was bleeding from his head

After searching the roadway, the team found tire marks, a dent in a guardrail, damaged trees and debris on the road, Leum said. This led them to believe the man was directly below the area.

Leum and a trainee went down the cliff and located the driver, who was laying in front of the car 400 feet down, Leum said. 

“He had an active bleed going on from his head,” Leum said. “Usually when we have cars that go off that road, it’s usually not survivable.”

“The fact that he had no broken bones means he was not ejected during the fall," Leum added, noting the man was thrown out when the car hit the bottom.

Responders called back the helicopter unit, who took the man to a local hospital, Leum said.

How Crash Detection on iPhone works

Crash Detection is available on iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 pro models and several Apple Watch models including the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) and Apple Watch Ultra with the latest version of watchOS. If you’re in a severe car crash, the devices will display this message – "It looks like you've been in a crash" – and will call emergency services if you don’t dismiss the message after 20-seconds, according to Apple.

"Crash Detection is designed to detect severe car crashes – such as front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers – involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks and other passenger cars," Apple said on its website.

Your iPhone will also text the 911 center your last known coordinates.

A similar feature is also available for Android users on some Google phones. According to Pixel Phone Help, Pixel 3, 4, and later phones can use "your phone's location, motion sensors, and nearby sounds" to detect a possible serious crash. It does require permission to track location, physical activity, and microphone to work. "If your phone detects a car crash, it can call emergency services for you."

Detection features on iPhones aren't perfect

There have been instances where these detection tools on iPhones might think you're in danger when you're not.

In October 2022, a woman was riding a roller coaster at an amusement park in Cincinnati when she checked her phone after the ride and noticed her iPhone 14 Pro had contacted an emergency dispatcher due to the crash detection function, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

And a 2020 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association found another health feature, Apple Watch's abnormal pulse detection, was falsely sending people to emergency rooms.

Crash Detection:iPhone 14's new Crash Detection reportedly kicks in if you're on a roller coaster