It was 8.30pm on Tuesday night and Blake Jackson had been out with some mates.
He was heading to his newly opened pizza shop to help clean up for the night when two large truck tyres appeared in the headlights of his car, still attached to the hub and rolling freely on the road right in front of him.
There were only split seconds in it and when he saw it, Jackson thought, “That’s gonna suck for wherever that lands”.
“And then I’m like, oh, it’s actually right in front of me now and nowhere to go,” he told 9News.
“Nothing. Nothing I could do and just smash, bang into it.
“So I braced, not really knowing how big of an impact it was gonna be or whether it was just gonna bounce off and I’d keep going.
“I just held on and hoped for the best.”
With little time to react, Jackson’s car took the impact head-on, causing the airbags to deploy and a large amount of damage to the car.
Moments later, Jackson said, his Apple Watch was vibrating and told him “you’ve been in a high-impact crash”.
He said the watch asked him on-screen to confirm, which he did and from there “it automatically dialled triple-zero and notified all my emergency contacts in my phone”.
Launched just last month, Apple’s new Crash Detection feature is available on its latest iPhone 14 models and on the Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra and SE.
It works by using sensors to determine if the device has been involved in an accident, with Apple testing a range of crash scenarios including rear, side and front impacts and roll-over events.
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In Jackson’s case, he owns an iPhone 14 Pro – one of the new devices with Crash Detection – and while the phone detected the crash, his older Apple Watch Series 6 notified him on his wrist because he got out of the car without his phone, which was in a mount that had been ripped from the dashboard, resulting in the phone screen cracking and it laying somewhere in the car.
The iPhone’s Health app allows owners to add emergency contacts, including phone numbers of family or friends, who will be alerted in these situations.
Jackson’s mate Ash received this message on the night of the crash:
Jackson’s sister Jacinta received the same message and lived just minutes away.
She arrived on the scene without him needing to talk to her about the crash location.
Jackson also had a dashcam in his car which was recording the whole thing and was able to verify his account of the accident to police at the scene.
Having experienced the intervention of technology in a potentially life-threatening situation, Jackson believes everyone should ensure they have emergency contacts listed in their phones.
“There’s the Health ID, which has all your blood type and stuff in there, plus your friends and family contact details,” he said.
“It’s just impressed me so much that it’s phenomenal.
“I’ve just got an Apple Watch, and it connected me straight away.
“I probably hadn’t gathered my thoughts enough to think about ringing triple-zero so it did the work for me.”
While his 2009 Subaru looks beyond repair, Jackson counts his blessings and has one heck of a story to tell those who come along to Beach Road Pizza.
