iPhone 14 owners headed to music festivals this summer may want to check that crash detection mode is disabled before arriving. The Manchester Police Department says that the feature is likely behind multiple accidental 911 calls they received from the 2023 edition of Bonnaroo, which began on Thursday in TN. “Bonnaroo Guests,” a tweet from the department reads. “MPD has responded to multiple accidental 911 calls at Bonnaroo. It’s likely that these calls are a result of ‘Crash Detection Mode’, a new feature on Apple iPhones. Please be mindful and consider deactivating this feature on your phone until Bonnaroo concludes.”
Bonnaroo quoted the tweet, adding, “Heads up Bonnaroovians! Let’s work as a team to resolve this! You can take action by going Settings>Emergency SOS and deactivating the ‘crash’ feature.”
Heads up Bonnaroovians! Let’s work as a team to resolve this! You can take action by going Settings>Emergency SOS and deactivating the “crash” feature. https://t.co/11MqYk0JKE
— Bonnaroo (@Bonnaroo) June 15, 2023
Apple says that crash detection is “designed to detect severe car crashes—such as front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers—involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and other passenger cars. When a severe car crash is detected, your iPhone or Apple Watch sounds an alarm and displays an alert. Your iPhone reads the alert, in case you can’t see the screen. If you have only your phone, the screen displays an Emergency Call slider and your phone can call emergency services.” If you don’t respond to the alert in 20 seconds, your phone will then automatically call emergency services, and send a message to any added emergecy contacts. No word on how it’s being triggered at music festivals.
Bonnaroo is streaming on Hulu this weekend – find the schedule HERE.