WCPO: Roller coaster riders are accidentally calling 911
UC professor suggests turning off phones to avoid unintended calls
Guests at amusement parks including Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, are accidentally calling 911 due to Apple's new crash detection feature, WCPO reported.
Between Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, the Warren County Communications Center in Ohio received 12 calls generated by iPhones while their users were riding a Kings Island roller coaster. The crash detection feature, which is intended to detect car crashes, is included on the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watches.
“It's doing its job to announce that it found the thing it was set to find,” said Jess Kropczynski, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati's School of Information Technology. “It’s just that this can often be a false positive.”
Kropczynski suggested people should turn off their phones prior to riding a roller coaster to prevent accidentally triggering the crash detection software.
Featured image at top courtesy of Unsplash.
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