A Doncaster Rovers football fan’s smart watch accidentally dialed 999 after the team scored their third goal against Barrow on Saturday (April 20). The Apple Watch’s automated SOS feature detected the loud celebration as an accident and dialed the emergency number.
South Yorkshire Police shared a photo of the 999 call handlers screen, which says the owner was ‘clearly at a football match’ because of the background noise. It read: “Automated message from an iWatch saying owner has been involved in an accident but from background noise, this is clearly a football match. I have tried to call back, voicemail left.”
The force said on social media: “Did you know that some smart watches automatically call 999 if it detects you’ve been in an accident? Why are we telling you this I hear you ask. Well when the third Doncaster Rovers goal went in on Saturday afternoon this happened! Hoping you’ve all recovered.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said recent software updates to smart devices were having “a significant impact” on the volume of emergency calls. Lifting weights, running and even doing yoga have all been found to activate the SOS feature on the devices.
