iPhones At Music Festival Trigger 911 Calls As Dancing Is Mistaken For Crashes

Tennessee’s Bonnaroo music festival and Apple’s new Crash Detection feature might not have anything in common, except for the fact that excessive dancing during different sets at the festival has caused iPhones to go a little haywire.
 
Recently, Apple put in place a feature to detect when a user has been caught in a car crash, via erratic movements, in the latest iPhone 14 lineup, the Apple Watch Series 8, the Apple Watch Ultra, and the second-generation Apple Watch SE.

Let’s say someone did get into a accident, then a prompt will come up on the screen, as well as audio alerts. If the person is in need, they could swipe the Emergency Call slider and contact authorities, and if it is a false alarm, they could dismiss it. If neither a call is placed nor swiped away within 20 seconds, the phone steps in and immediately notifies emergency services. 
 
The feature might have come in handy had there been a crash over the festival weekend, but the only accident caused here was dancing a little too hard.
 
It is estimated that 80,000 people had come down to Manchester, Tennessee, for the festival, and that alone might have already put authorities on high alert. Reports are now saying that almost five times the number of 911 calls were made as compared to last year’s event.
 
Luckily, that number of calls coming in wasn’t enough to overwhelm the system, and the police could still get to those in need. Bonnaroo organizers worked with the local authorities to help identify every false alert made to ensure no emergencies were happening.
 
A day into the festival, Manchester Police Department released a statement alerting attendees of the issue and asked them to consider turning the feature off until Bonnaroo ended. Local news outlet WKRN noted that this seemed to do the trick as the alerts began to drop drastically. 
 
 
 
[via Gizmodo and 9to5Mac, Photo 102539203 © Vasilis Ververidis | Dreamstime.com]