A mom from Pennsylvania has praised an iPhone feature for helping to save her 16-year-old daughter's life after she accidentally fell asleep behind the wheel while driving.
Lindsay Leskovac had been driving after dropping off a friend on August 2 when she fell asleep and ended up crashing her car into some trees and two poles.
Images of the truck show it completely destroyed as a result of the crash, but while Lindsay was left unconscious, she was thankfully still alive.
The teenager came around while she was still in the truck, and woke to the sound of a 911 dispatcher trying to get her attention. Lindsay hadn't called emergency services herself - her iPhone had done it for her.
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According to Apple, any iPhone model from the iPhone 14 or later, and which is equipped with at least iOS 16, comes with the Crash Detection feature, which is designed to detect severe car crashes such as front-impact, side-impact and rear-end collisions, as well as rollovers.
The tech initially prompts an alarm to sound, but if you're unable to respond then the device will call the emergency services automatically after a 30-second countdown.
This is what had happened in Lindsay's case, allowing her to start a conversation with dispatchers once she woke up.
Speaking to People, her mom, Laura, explained: "She was on the phone with them for 22 minutes then, telling them who she was, who we were, who her parents were and they were trying to locate her. She was very far off-road. They were pinging her location to try to send the rescue workers to her."
Laura said the Crash Detection feature was 'what alerted' first responders to Lindsay, adding: "Otherwise we would have gotten devastating news that our daughter was found dead out in a field somewhere. So we're just so blessed."
"One of the rescue workers told me that she would have died if the phone didn't call 911, she would have bled to death," Laura continued. "She was upside down in the vehicle, but she had her seatbelt on so she wasn't ejected."
Lindsay suffered a number of injuries in the crash, including breaking both of her femurs, her spine, neck, shoulder blade, right wrist and left foot. She was released from the hospital over Labor Day weekend, but continues to face a long road to recovery.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to 'help ease the burden and lift this incredible family up during the most difficult time of their lives', which you can donate to here.
Topics: iPhone, Technology, Apple, Phones, Health
Emily Brown