WALWORTH COUNTY — Apple Watches and iPhones sent false crash alerts to law enforcement this weekend, according to the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office. Now, law enforcement is asking people to take simple steps in order to prevent false alerts.
Because of a new feature on some Apple devices, the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office said it has received several false alerts. Those alerts all stemmed from sudden stops or wipeouts while skiing or sledding at Alpine Valley and Grand Geneva.
The new feature, which is available on the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8, SE, and Ultra, detects crashes. When one of the devices detects a crash, an alert pops up saying “It looks like you’ve been in a crash. iPhone will trigger Emergency SOS if you don’t respond.”
If you don’t respond to the alert within 20 seconds, it automatically calls law enforcement with an automated message saying you’ve been in a crash, and it shares your location.
Now, the sheriff’s office is asking people to turn their phones and watches on airplane mode or off while skiing, in order to prevent false alerts. You can also disable the feature by going to settings, tapping emergency SOS, and turning off ‘Call After Severe Crash.’
To turn it off on your watch, open the Apple Watch app on your phone. In the My Watch tab, tap Emergency SOS. Then turn off Call After Severe Crash.
Walworth County is not the only area to experience false alerts. According to the Colorado Sun, dispatchers in Summit County got 71 crash notifications in one weekend, and none of them involved an emergency.
Even without an emergency, the Colorado Sun reported the calls each takes some time to sort out. If the skier whose phone sent the alert didn’t answer a return call, ski patrollers had to go to the location and check for a crash.
Walworth County said they had to do the same, they have to contact Ski Patrol and dispatch resources.
You can learn more about the crash detection feature and how to turn it off on Apple’s website.
