Ash Cant, Yahoo! News Australia
4th October 2022 – (Nebraska) A feature on the new iPhone alerted police to a car crash over the weekend that left six people dead.
Just after 2am on 2nd October, Lincoln Police Officers in Nebraska responded to what they described as the “worst crash in Lincoln in recent memory”.
The 911 call was thanks to Apple’s Crash Detection, so the authorities received a recording from an iPhone and were able to respond to the scene.
When police arrived at the scene, they found what they believed was a black Honda Accord and said it appeared as though the car had crossed the road and struck a tree in a yard.
A 24-year-old woman was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police said in an update the woman has since died due to her injuries.
The other five occupants in the car were pronounced dead at the scene. The deceased were all male and include a 26-year-old driver, a 21-year-old, a 23-year-old and two passengers who were 22.
Police said in a statement they are investigating the crash.
Neighbours tried to save crash victims
Since the crash, the driver and five passengers who were involved have been identified.
The driver was 26-year-old Jonathan Kurth, the passengers were Octavias Farr, Cassie Brenner, Jonathan Koch and Nicholas Bisesi, all were from Lincoln, local news station KOLN reported.
The sixth victim was Benjamin Lenagh who was from Omaha, which is about 95km from Lincoln.
It’s also come to light that neighbours rushed to the crash site and tried to help however they could.
One neighbour, Brad Bartak, told KOLN he grabbed a garden hose and ran up to the car, saying the neighbours started dousing the vehicle.
Another neighbour then took over for Mr Bartak so he could try and break a window at the back.
The incident report stated the Honda Accord struck the curb just after 2am, it then hit a mailbox before crashing into a tree, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
What is the Crash Detection iPhone feature?
The iPhone feature that alerted police to the crash in Lincoln is available on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models with the latest version of iOS and Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Ultra.
Apple says Crash Detection is designed to detect severe car crashes.
Once the Apple device detects a severe crash, an alert shows up, giving the option to call emergency services or dismiss the alert.
However, if there is a 20-second delay in responding to the prompt, emergency services will be called from the device automatically.