USA
New problem for authorities: Winter sports enthusiasts trigger many false alarms with the Apple Watch’s fall detection
The Apple Watch makes an emergency call in the event of a serious fall (icon image)
© Imaginechina-Tuchong / Imago Images
The fall detection of Apple Watch and iPhone occupies the emergency services in the United States. They are faced with a new problem: winter sports enthusiasts in ski areas are triggering masses of false alarms.
The emergency call function of the Apple Watch should help to quickly report serious falls and accidents to the emergency services. But instead of providing a remedy, Apple’s fall detection system in the US often calls emergency services when skiers and snowboarders suffer a non-hazardous fall.
Since the start of the ski season, the Greene County Department in upstate New York has seen a sharp increase in 911 calls compared to the same period last year. There is a 22 percent increase in emergency calls from the popular ski resorts of Windham and Hunter Mountains. The caller then hangs up or does not answer because the emergency call was dialed accidentally.
“We still have a 15 to 25 percent increase in calls [im Vergleich zum vergangenen Jahr]that could very well be caused by these Apple-generated and automated accident reports,” said Jim DiPerna, the district’s chief of emergency communications for the New York Post.
According to the manufacturer, the Apple Watch SE or Apple Watch Series 4 or newer models should be able to recognize a serious fall and then automatically make an emergency call. If wrist detection is activated, the device “taps” the user’s wrist after a fall and emits an alarm tone. If a movement is registered after the fall, it waits about a minute for a reaction. If there is no movement or reaction to the sustained alarm tone during this time, the Apple Watch alerts the emergency services. If you also have an iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro, notifications should be sent to the emergency services via satellite.
However, Apple points out on its website: “The Apple Watch cannot detect all falls. Your watch may recognize extreme activity as a fall and trigger a fall detection.”
Apple Watch: Automatic emergency call function is a problem for emergency services
The responsible authorities know this too. If an emergency call comes in, it is first necessary to clarify whether it is a real emergency. If the caller does not speak, the emergency services try to locate the device and pass the location on to the local ski patrol, DiPerna explains to the New York Post. “In the worst case, we try to find out where they are, what went wrong and what resources we need to send to solve the problem.”
The automatically made emergency calls therefore pose an enormous problem for the emergency services. And that also affects the emergency services in Pennsylvania, where there are other ski areas. Here, the false emergency calls are perceived as “exhausting”. “You have enough to do already,” says Deputy Agency Manager Justin Markell of his team.
A spokesman for Apple said the company was in contact with emergency services and was getting their feedback. However, he did not comment on how the feature might be updated in the future to prevent false emergency calls from Apple devices.
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Sources: New York Post, Apple