Roommates, a New Jersey man ad his friend slipped on a hiking trail and were dangling from a cliff, when they were saved by an unexpected device…an Apple Watch.
According to Fox news, James Prudenciano and Paige Prusso were hiking in the woods last week when they fell over a cliff. After their Apple watch detected the impact of their falls, both dialed 911, saving their lives.
Prudenciano said he and Prusso slipped on the trail and fell off the steep portion of the mountain. He said they scaled the mountain for nearly two hours after getting lost, but could’t get back onto the trail.
“We sat on the mountain, looked at each other and decided we’re gonna go down this mountain to get off.”
The two say they sat on their butts and slid down to the bottom of the mountain: “When we got to the bottom there was a cliff. I had no idea it was there.”
“We started panicking. She was dangling off and hanging,” Prudenciano said. “I was stuck. It was really dark. I couldn’t see. My foot was stuck under something. I couldn’t see.”
Shortly after hanging from vines for some time the two left go and fell into a river, landing on a rock. That’s when both of their Apple watches detected their falls and called 911.
He said he heard his Apple watch say, “911 what’s your emergency?” and thought, “Damn this is an angel.”
First responders were able to locate the two by tracking the GPS coordinates on their watches and arrived within 15 minutes.
Prudenciano suffered a broken heel and hand, and has cracks in three parts of his back. He says, however, he’s just happy to be alive.
Apple watches have a ‘fall detection feature’, which detects a sudden fall and calls emergency services if the person doesn’t dismiss the alert within one minute of falling. According to apple’s website, if the person has put an emergency contact in their phone, the Apple Watch will send a text message to the person with their location.
