Photo: Apple
You don’t normally expect to end up in a river when riding a bike, but someone in Rotherwas, Hereford, UK, was prepared for the most extreme adventure of his life without him even knowing it.
A cyclist was swept off his bike and fell into the flooded River Wye bed, eventually being pushed by the water no less than a mile (1.6 km) down the river. He eventually managed to get his hands on a branch and hold on to it in order to alert the emergency services.
While talking on the phone isn’t obviously the most convenient thing to do when your life depends on clinging onto a tree, the cyclist used his Apple Watch to alert the emergency authorities.
The smartwatch then shared the location where he was, and the fire control teams also used information from passers-by to determine the exact place where the man was clinging on the branch.
It took some 20 minutes for the emergency crew to find the man, and during this whole time, he remained in contact with the station commander using nothing but the Apple Watch.
“Even with that location it still took us 20 minutes to locate him and rescue him and bring him to safety. He was speaking to our fire control whilst he was clinging onto a tree, via his Apple Watch, which worked wonderfully well for us to actually get to him as quickly as possible. He is a very lucky man to have been able to get hold of a branch and then spend probably 20 minutes in the water whilst he's clinging onto that branch, we're very surprised he didn't lose his grip,” station commander Sean Bailey was quoted as saying by the BBC.
At the end of the day, this once again proves that technology can save our lives in those moments when you expect it the least, while also serving as great marketing material for the Apple Watch.
For what it’s worth, the cheapest Apple Watch available right now is the SE, which in the United States can be yours from $279.
While talking on the phone isn’t obviously the most convenient thing to do when your life depends on clinging onto a tree, the cyclist used his Apple Watch to alert the emergency authorities.
The smartwatch then shared the location where he was, and the fire control teams also used information from passers-by to determine the exact place where the man was clinging on the branch.
It took some 20 minutes for the emergency crew to find the man, and during this whole time, he remained in contact with the station commander using nothing but the Apple Watch.
“Even with that location it still took us 20 minutes to locate him and rescue him and bring him to safety. He was speaking to our fire control whilst he was clinging onto a tree, via his Apple Watch, which worked wonderfully well for us to actually get to him as quickly as possible. He is a very lucky man to have been able to get hold of a branch and then spend probably 20 minutes in the water whilst he's clinging onto that branch, we're very surprised he didn't lose his grip,” station commander Sean Bailey was quoted as saying by the BBC.
At the end of the day, this once again proves that technology can save our lives in those moments when you expect it the least, while also serving as great marketing material for the Apple Watch.
For what it’s worth, the cheapest Apple Watch available right now is the SE, which in the United States can be yours from $279.
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