Emergency call, Emergency number | Man dropped his phone on the ground – the police received a call about a “serious car accident”

The man had just dropped his smartphone on the ground. It had triggered automatic accident registration, which is a function that is built into some new Apple phones and watches.

– The man was surprised when we got in touch with him via family members. He was completely unaware that the phone he had dropped on the ground had triggered an emergency call, says operations manager Eivind Hellesund to Nettavisen.

It was on Tuesday evening that the West police district reported an emergency call to 112 in Bergen where a voice stated that “the owner has been in a serious car accident.” The police did not make contact with the person concerned and went to a housing estate, but there they found no trace of an accident. Eventually they were contacted by family members of the man, who could tell where he was. It then turned out that modern technology in the phone had played a trick on the police.

The person had dropped the phone on the ground.

To Nettavisen, the operations manager says that it is not the first time that the West police district has received such involuntary emergency calls from smartphones and smart watches and says that the cases the police are aware of involve Apple products.

– Last time we had someone who had fallen skiing at Voss. It had triggered the phone’s emergency call. We also had a band conductor who had an Apple watch. He conducted the corps on 17 May, and he did so forcefully that the phone chose to alert the police, says Hellesund.

On Apple’s website refers to the iPhone and Apple Watch models that have this function with registration of suspected accidents.

– If you are able to do so, you can choose to call the emergency services or reject the alert, it says on the website.