WALKER COUNTY, TX- Just after 9 p.m. Saturday, Walker County 911 received an iPhone crash notification on the southbound feeder of I-45 north of New Waverly. New Waverly Firefighters and Walker County EMS were responding, when Dispatchers received an OnStar crash notification at the same location. The lightly traveled two way service road is unlit, and no other 911 calls were received.
A New Waverly Fire Engine was first on the scene. The Engine slowed as they approached a hill near the reported location. When the Engine topped the hill, firefighters saw two heavily damaged vehicles on the dark roadway, without headlights shining. Both vehicles had severe front-end damage, and both drivers were trapped behind their steering wheels, and one of them also had trapped child. All three victims were critically injured.
Fire and EMS freed all three victims in a few minutes, just as additional Fire and EMS crews began to arrive. They stabilized the victims and rushed them to trauma centers in Conroe and The Woodlands.
Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers are conducting the crash investigation.
Editor’s Note: It’s interesting to point out that automatic crash notification has become the bane of dispatchers’ existence since it became standard on some smart phones and is now available in most newer vehicles. The problem is the detection system has yet to be perfected and automatic crash notifications are responding to multiple false alarms every day. With smart phones, in particular, there’s a high incidence of false alarms due to the phone being dropped. A callback is triggered, but there’s rarely an answer because the person who dropped the phone doesn’t recognize the number and may think it’s a spam call, not realizing they’ve caused emergency services to be activated. Unfortunately, when nobody answers, it could also be the result of someone being injured in the hypothetical crash that triggered the notification. As a result, first responders must respond to the location indicated by the automatic notification, only to find absolutely nothing. This wastes an ever-increasing amount of time and tax dollars, and is frustrating to all involved. In Saturday night’s case, however, the two vehicles were on a dark stretch of feeder road and the drivers were injured and trapped in their vehicles. Those vehicles no longer had lights working, making them nearly impossible for anyone not specifically looking for a crash in that location to find them. In this case, the automatic crash notification systems may have been the difference between life and death. This is definitely a good argument for paying a few dollars extra for that system. Of course, we sincerely hope the technology improves soon so that less false alarms are triggered.
Photo is courtesy of the New Waverly Fire Department, (District Chief Jimmy Williams)
