06/01/24 Crash Detected SOS

Andy Griffin:

Saturday night my wife and I were hanging out at a relative's house when our phones started buzzing simultaneously.

It was an emergency text saying this: "Crash Detected SOS. I called emergency services from this approximate location after iPhone detected a crash. You are receiving this message because I have listed you as an emergency contact."

The text came with a pin of the location and was from my oldest son's iPhone (AJ), putting him near Sand Hollow Reservoir.

As any parent knows, this is the kind of text you never want to receive, and my wife and I started desperately making phone calls.

We were 300 miles away and felt incredibly helpless. The text came at 9:36 p.m. and calls to his friends netted no more information.

A second identical alert came about 25 minutes later and a few minutes after that, it showed on locator that he was home, so we relaxed a little, but still hadn't heard anything.

About an hour after that, he texted back and said he had left his phone on the roof of his car and the crash detector was alerted when it fell off while he was driving home from the lake.

Whew! Relief washed over us as we knew he was safe, but it did get me to thinking about the whole process.

He was safe, his phone was trashed and police were dispatched to the scene.

As much relief as I felt, I still couldn't help but wonder if this happens all the time. And is it a huge waste of police or emergency resources?

"Actually, it happens a lot," St. George Police's Tiffany Mitchell said. "It's almost like a 9-1-1 hang-up. We still have to dispatch an officer and make sure everyone is OK."

So every time an iPhone has a violent interaction (off roof of car, dropped from a medium height, accidentally run over, etc.), police are dispatched to the scene?

"You could look at it as a waste of police time and resources if you want," Mitchell said. "But on the flip side, if someone is in an accident and is injured or unable to call, this is a good way for police to be alerted.

"If it saves just one life, it's worth it."

.She makes a good point. My son was OK, but what if he wasn't?

Comments

06/14/25 Pre-Yellowstone

Last year for Christmas I purchased a vacation to Yellowstone for the kids and us. The dates for the Yellowstone cabin were June 16-June 20. We decided to break the trip up a little and drive up the weekend before and drive home the weekend after. Also, because Katie got married, and Dallas has limited time off, he was unable to take his family on the trip. We stayed at his house and got some twin time in before we continued north. Aspen and John moved to Pennsylvania and are in Utah for the summer. On our way up north we stopped at Becky's house to see them and their sweet new baby. Erik recently got a new job so he was also not able to join us on our trip. Holly became our little girl again and traveled with us. Holly and Millie My dad's been in the care center so we stopped by to visit him. He's being well cared for. He is struggling to put sentences together. We came and went to church with him at the care center. He's been asking for a really good pizza. So we w...

06/16/25-06/20/25 Yellowstone

We had a really great week on our Yellowstone trip. We stayed at a VRBO cabin in a remote cabin in Ashton, Idaho. It was just right for our group. We were able to go to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mesa Falls, the Yellowstone Playhouse, Lava Hot Springs Pools and Slides. We drove lots, played games, did puzzles, roasted hot dogs, made s'mores, enjoyed picnic lunches, ice cream at the frost top, dinners together made by each lil family and so much more. Loved it! (There are lots more pictures in our shared Yellowstone google album. Also, these pictures are not in order of happening. )

07/10/2025 Dad's Passing

Dad's stay at the care center ended up being 35 days. He had a care giver that really connected with him named Michael. Michael cared for him when he was living at home and then came out a couple of times to the care center before he died. He really appreciated those visits and lit up when Michael came to visit and help care for him. I'm thankful that I was able to see him the two weekends about two weeks before he died. He was still able to smile and sit and eat at that time. I'm so glad that Ruth and Becky were able to take the time and spend quite a bit of time with him the last couple of weeks before he died. His condition continued to deteriorate and it was not easy to see him that way and spend so much time there. But my sisters and Suzanne did what they could to make him comfortable at the end. He was found dead in his bed on the morning of July 10. Rest in peace, Dad. I love you!

Griffin Family

Search This Blog