A Pennsylvania mother has credited an iPhone feature with saving her 16-year-old daughter’s life after the teenager fell asleep at the wheel.
Lindsay Leskovac was involved in a crash on August 2 after falling asleep while driving, resulting in her car colliding with trees and poles.
Photos reveal the truck was totaled, but despite losing consciousness, Lindsay survived the accident.
Lindsay regained consciousness while still inside the vehicle, hearing a 911 dispatcher attempting to communicate with her. The emergency call was not made by Lindsay herself; her iPhone initiated it.
Apple’s Crash Detection feature, available on iPhone 14 models and later with iOS 16 or newer, detects severe car crashes, including front, side, and rear impacts, as well as rollovers.
The feature triggers an alarm and, if there is no response, automatically contacts emergency services after a 30-second countdown.
This process allowed Lindsay to engage with dispatchers once awake.
Her mother, Laura, told People, “She was on the phone with them for 22 minutes then, telling them who she was, who we were, who her parents were and they were trying to locate her. She was very far off-road. They were pinging her location to try to send the rescue workers to her.”
Laura mentioned that the Crash Detection feature alerted responders to Lindsay’s location, explaining, “Otherwise we would have gotten devastating news that our daughter was found dead out in a field somewhere. So we’re just so blessed.”
She added, “One of the rescue workers told me that she would have died if the phone didn’t call 911, she would have bled to death. She was upside down in the vehicle, but she had her seatbelt on so she wasn’t ejected.”
Lindsay endured several injuries, including fractures in both femurs, her spine, neck, shoulder blade, right wrist, and left foot. She was discharged over Labor Day weekend, but her recovery journey is ongoing.
To support the family during this challenging time, a GoFundMe page has been created for donations, which can be contributed to here.