FLORENCE COUNTY, Wisc. (WZMQ) – An 18 year old is recovering in the hospital after a crash in Fence Township, Wisc. earlier this month.
The Florence County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center received a 911 call on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 5:55 a.m. An automated Apple iPhone alert indicted that the owner of the phone was detected to be in a crash and the owner unresponsive, along with location details. Emergency personnel were dispatched to STH 101 near the Popple River where they found 18-year-old Austin Mills with severe head trauma.
Mills was transported to Marshfield Medical Center- Dickinson and eventually airlifted to Aurora BayCare in Green Bay, Wisc. where he remains in the ICU but is making great strides in recovery.
The sheriff’s office reports the vehicle was badly damaged after leaving the road and rolling. It appeared Mills may have swerved to avoid a collision with a deer. Further investigation concluded Mills was not wearing a seatbelt.
Florence County Sheriff Teresa Chrisman said in a statement that she believes the software on Mills’ iPhone saved his life.
“Sometimes as parents we loathe phones and how much teenagers are connected to them,” she wrote, “but this feature is one every teenager and adult alike should have enabled on their phone. It also helped a young man in neighboring Iron Mountain, MI last year that was also in a severe accident.”
To learn more about how to turn on this feature on your iPhone, click here.
