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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Friday, February 03, 2023

Dispatchers for 911 are being inundated with false, automated distress calls from Apple devices owned by skiers who are very much alive.

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... On a recent sunny Sunday morning, following a night of fluffy snowfall, tens of thousands of skiers flocked to the resorts of Summit County. Just minutes after the lift lines opened, sirens began blaring in the 911 emergency service center, where four staff members were taking calls and dispatching help.

Each jarring alert was a new incoming call, heralding a possible car crash, heart attack or other life-threatening situation. Often, the phone operators heard a chilling sound at the far end of the line: silence, perhaps from a caller too incapacitated to respond.

At 9:07 a.m., one dispatcher, Eric Betts, responded to such a call. From the map on one of the seven monitors on his desk, he could see that the distress call originated from a slope at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. Mr. Betts tried calling back. A man picked up.

"Do you have an emergency?" Mr. Betts asked. No, the man said, he was skiing -- safely, happily, unharmed. Slightly annoyed, he added, "For the last three days, my watch has been dialing 911."

Winter has brought a decent amount of snowfall to the region's ski resorts, and with it an avalanche of false emergency calls. Virtually all of them have been placed by Apple Watches or iPhone 14s under the mistaken impression that their owners have been debilitated in collisions. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2023-02-03 02:10 PM | Reply

... "For the last three days, my watch has been dialing 911." ...

He should have taken the watch off after the first erroneous call to 911.


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2023-02-03 02:11 PM | Reply

Apple is crapple.

#3 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2023-02-03 04:11 PM | Reply

Big Tech needs to get its act together.

Placing a burden upon our heroic emergency responders is not the appropriate way to attain profits for Big Tech shareholders.


I do not know how to be more succinct in that statement.

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2023-02-03 10:08 PM | Reply

Last night, an Apple watch alerted our 911 center of an elderly lady who fell in her bathroom. She could not get up, and depending on how often her family and neighbors checked on her; it might have saved her life. It at least kept her from a very uncomfortable night on the bathroom floor. I did not know that was a feature of Apple watches, but it seems pretty brilliant to me, especially since I have elderly parents, one of whom has Parkinson's. Saving one life is worth a hundred or more 911 hangup calls.

#5 | Posted by _Gunslinger_ at 2023-02-04 07:04 PM | Reply

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