Coroner issues warning after police fail to respond to 999 iPhone crash alert

A coroner has issued a warning after police failed to immediately respond to an 999 alert sent by a car smash victim's iPhone.

Apple's crash-detection feature, which works on iPhone 14 and later and Apple Watch 8, sends alerts to emergency services when it detects a serious collision.

The new technology has been credited in the US for saving a string of lives. But in the UK the coroner spoke out after police admitted they do not know enough about it.

The prevention of future deaths notice was issued following an inquest into the death of teenager George Dillon, whose phone sent an automated alert to Hampshire police that was not immediately acted on.

A task force has now been set up to look at how forces nationally should respond to crash-detection technology and SOS alerts.

George, 19, from Ower, lost control of his VW Golf and hit a tree in Romsey as he drove to a friend's house in May last year.

His Apple device made an automated call to Hampshire Constabulary at 10.16pm indicating he had been in a serious car crash and was not responding to his iPhone.

An accurate location was provided but police did not immediately respond to it.The 999 call operator had logged there had been "no direct request" for help made and said of the automated call: "Cannot hear anything distinctive in the background - no sounds of distress/disturbance."

Hampshire coroner Henry Charles told how the iPhone was called back but went straight to voicemail.

Only a call from a member of the public, almost 30 minutes later, led police to George. Mr Charles said: "The control room supervisor forwarded the message to the intelligence team to establish who the iPhone belonged to and whether there was any serious harm or risk to life. By 22.43 the intelligence team had drawn a blank. But for a call from a member of the public at 22.45, further steps may have been made to make contact or a police vehicle may have been assigned to attend the GPS co-ordinates or no further action taken."

George's inquest heard from police that false alarms from devices are "commonplace" with location data "often inaccurate and liable to involve substantial time in tracking the device down".

A Hampshire officer admitted to the inquest: "Not enough is known about this technology within people's personal phones."

Mr Charles has written to the National Police Chiefs' Council to warn that further lives are at risk without better understanding of the technology.

He said: "I am concerned the understanding, training and procedures need review to assist with appropriately prompt response in situations where there is an indication of a collision where a risk to life may exist."

ACC Catherine Akehurst, of the NPCC, told the Sunday Express: "In my role as lead for Contact Management, I have directed a task and finish group to create an agreed national position in relation to automated calls, including mobile phone crash detection.

"I have also requested the Memorandum of Understanding in relation to SOS-Alerts is updated."