A woman involved in a horror crash on the same day as the tragic Cardiff car crash has shared potentially life-saving advice for iPhone users after her handset automatically sent her mother an SOS alert following the accident.
Nicole Samuel implored Twitter users to “list someone as an emergency contact” and shared a screenshot of a text her mum received showing her location.
Police arrived at the scene to find Miss Samuel’s car overturned on its roof, but she had rushed to safety.
Three days later, Miss Samuel tweeted: ‘This could be the difference between life and death. Please, please, please stop what you are doing and add a family member [as an emergency contact on your phone]’.
Miss Samuel’s crash in Aberdare, Wales, took place on Saturday March 4 – the same day a car carrying five friends crashed less than 25 miles from Cardiff.
Darcy Ross, 21, Eve Smith, 21 and Rafel Jeanne, 24, died after their VW Tiguan left the A48 and crashed into trees in the early hours of Saturday March 4.
Two friends, Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, were in critical condition when they were found inside the wreckage.
Seach’s parties had been roaming the area for almost 48 hours after the five friends were last seen at a Cardiff petrol station at 2am on Saturday March 4.
Nicole Samuel was involved in a car accident on Saturday March 4 on the main road through Llwydcoed, South Wales. Following this, she wrote down some tips that everyone should follow.
Nicole wrote on Twitter that she allowed her mom to be her emergency contact, telling her followers she can’t “stress” enough the importance of having this feature enabled on your phone.
The five crash victims were returning from a night out in Cardiff when their white VW Tiguan left the road at high speed and flew into trees and undergrowth. Three died, two were seriously injured and hospitalized. Police have not released the names of those who died.
In the message screenshot, the automatic message can be seen. It reads: “Crash detected SOS.
‘Nicole Samuel called emergency services from this approximate location after the iPhone detected a crash.
“You are receiving this message because Nicole has listed you as an emergency contact.”
In full, Nicole wrote on Twitter that she allowed her mum to be an emergency contact, writing, “I can’t stress this enough!! This text was sent to my mum from my iPhone after my car accident.
“Registering someone as an emergency contact can mean the difference between life and death. Please, please stop what you are doing and add a family member or share this with someone. another.
Following this tip, other users commented on how “important” it is to share this feature.
One user tweeted: “Glad you share this girl!” I hope you are doing well and recovering quickly.
Another said: “Brilliant and important feature.”
A third added: ‘I did this. Saves your life. The best thing in the world!!!’
One person asked how exactly her phone knew she was involved in an accident, writing: ‘Hope you’re okay!! Just wondering how your phone contacted emergency services or do you have to press the button on the side?
And Nicole replied: ‘No, you don’t press any buttons, it detects the crash itself and does it for you!! It’s amazing.’
While another person echoed the importance of having this on your phone, saying: ‘As an emergency call operator I can confirm that these calls connect directly to 999 and we connect them to the police if no one talks to us. If you come online, we can also connect you to other emergency services you request.
And a fifth person wrote, “Glad you’re okay!” This is such an awesome feature. For those asking, collision detection is on new iPhones as a safety feature – if it thinks you’ve been in an accident and you don’t answer your phone, it automatically calls emergency services. ’emergency ! I didn’t know about the contacts either!’
While another person said the same feature can be enabled for Apple Watch as well.
They wrote: “My dad actually took a hard fall while wearing his Apple Watch and this informed me and my sister so we can immediately spring into action. Luckily he was just a little bruised, but since they live almost two hours away, it really comforts us to have been informed.
How to Activate Emergency SOS on Your iPhone
Nicole wrote that enabling this feature “is honestly a lifesaver”. Here’s how you can add an emergency contact on your iPhone:
- Open the Health app and tap on your profile picture
- Tap Medical ID
- Tap Edit, then scroll down to Emergency Contacts
- Tap the Add button to add an emergency contact
- Tap a contact, then add their relationship
- Tap Done to save your changes
How to do this for Android
You can use the Personal Safety app to save and share your emergency information.
- On your phone, open the Security app
- Tap Security Check
- Select your pattern and duration
- Press Next
- Select your contacts
- Tap Activate
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