Apple smart watches and I-Phone 14 have a new feature that detects when you’ve been in a car crash and then dials 911 for you. It appears to have a glitch though. When people wear or carry them on roller coasters, it sets off the alert.
If this is like the alert on my Garmin watch, it would give the owner a brief amount of time to press a “Stop” button if it went off accidentally. Sometimes my Garmin watch sets off the alarm if I’m on my bike and hit a bump too hard. By the time I pull over and hit the false alert button, it’s usually down to 1 or 2 seconds before it calls someone.
Now, imagine being on a roller coaster and the alert goes off. If it’s set to vibrate, you’re never going to feel it on the coaster. If there’s sound, I doubt you’re going to hear it over the screams…… screams that were heard in the background of a couple calls that the watches made to 911. Then imagine the police pulling up the GPS and seeing you moving at 75 miles per hour in circles and trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
Dollywood and other parks have already put up signs warning people and asking them to leave watches and phones off the rides.