The Colorado Sun newspaper is reporting that the state's Summit County 911 Center is being swamped by automated calls from iPhones which report their owner has been in an accident, when they haven't.
The new iPhone 14 and Watch 8 series automatically calls emergency services if they are moving at speed then stop abruptly, indicating a car crash may have occurred. However it appears skiers stopping suddenly on the slopes cause the system to call emergency services.
911 handlers then call the phone to check if there has been an accident or not, however with phones often deep in pockets and skiers wearing hats and helmets, most don't hear the calls ot don't respond if they do. Protocol then is to dispatch emergency services to the last known location of the phone.
Summit Country reported an average of 60 automated crash notifications a day and a record so far of 71 in one day.
Trina Dummer, the interim director of the Summit County 911 center told the Colorado Sun, these calls involve "a tremendous amount of resources, from dispatchers to deputies to ski patrollers," but none of them was an actual emergency event. Dispatchers are fielding these automated calls on the snowy hills and slopes, which means they are diverted from an actual emergency that could save someone's life.
Apple are reported to now be aware of the conflict between skiers and the crash detection technology and say they have a team working on a fix.
Separately Apple iPhones have also been praised for helping rescue skiers trapped or injured in potentially life threatening real emergencies when used manually to automatically call emergency services and send location data.