An Apple Watch safety device glitch had first responders in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island scrambling for no reason.
On Jan. 26 Comox Valley RCMP spent time looking for a car crash up at Mt. Washington that didn’t exist.
The fire department, emergency health services and police all got the call for a car crash; however, after combing the area determined that nobody was in distress and there was no crash. Police were able to confirm that the 911 call came from an Apple watch after a skier took a fall.
“There is a crash detection software installed on newer Apple devices,” said Comox Valley RCMP Const. Monika Terragni. “We are asking users to disable to crash detection if you’re skiing or snowboarding with others in a populated area, or to check your device immediately after a fall to ensure it did not call 911. It is also important to keep your device up-to-date with the latest operating system as developers continue to tweak this feature.”
In order to tweak your watchOS device to avoid accidental 911 calls, open the Watch app on the paired iPhone and browse for the My Watch view, then go to Emergency SOS in settings, and adjust “fall detection” appropriately.
terry.farrell@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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