Stop False Alarms: How to Turn Off Crash Detection on Your iPhone and Apple Watch
If you’re doing any sort of extreme activity like riding roller coasters or skiing, you should turn off Crash Detection on your iPhone and Apple Watch. Here’s how.
Let me tell you a true story about Crash Detection on the iPhone and Apple Watch. I was recently at a theme park, riding roller coaster after roller coaster. As I got off The Patriot at Worlds of Fun, my phone started ringing with a number that looked familiar but not. I dismissed the call, and they immediately called again. A funny feeling in the back of my head, I answered.
“Hello, this is Kansas City 911. Did you call us?” the caller asked. Immediately, I realized what had happened.
“I’m so sorry,” I told the dispatcher. “I’m at Worlds of Fun and just got off a roller coaster. I forgot to turn off Crash Detection.”
To keep something like this from happening to you (because nobody should tie up 911’s resources without good reason), here’s how to disable Crash Detection on the iPhone and Apple Watch.
Turning Off Crash Detection: Simple and Easy
Crash Detection is supposed to help save lives if you’re involved in an automobile accident in a remote location. The problem is that it can’t always differentiate between a true collision and a thrilling amusement park ride. Here’s how to turn the feature off before you accidentally call emergency services needlessly.
- Go to Settings > Emergency SOS.
- Scroll down to Call After Severe Crash, and toggle the feature off.
- Carry on riding your roller coasters, and have the time of your life!
If you wear an Apple Watch, you should do the same thing on that device. The steps are the same, and you can follow them either from the Watch app on your paired iPhone or from your Apple Watch’s Settings app.
Once your day of thrilling rides is complete, follow those same steps to turn Crash Detection back on.
What Is Crash Detection?
Apple describes Crash Detection as being “designed to detect severe car crashes — such as front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers — involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and other passenger cars.”
When triggered, your iPhone or Apple Watch tries to get your attention to make sure you’re okay. Your iPhone reads off an alert to you, while your Watch chimes and taps your wrist. If you don’t respond, it calls emergency services for your country.
In my case, I couldn’t hear or feel anything because, well, I was being spun around, flipped upside down, and hurled down the roller coaster’s drop. So, I had no idea the feature had been triggered until the 911 dispatcher called me to check in on me.
What If I Don’t See Crash Detection?
If you don’t see the option for Crash Detection, it’s likely because your device doesn’t support it. Apple introduced the feature with the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8. Here are the devices that offer Crash Detection:
- iPhone 14 or later (all models) with iOS 16 or later
- Apple Watch Series 8 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), and Apple Watch Ultra or later with watchOS 9 or later.
The emergency calls use a cellular connection or Wi-Fi calling with an internet connection from your iPhone or Apple Watch. If none of those connections are available, the feature may not work as designed.
So, that’s my tale of the one time I forgot to disable Crash Detection when I should have. Roller coasters, ski slopes, and any activity that might make the sensor input in your device seem like a severe car crash can trigger the alert. So, if you’re doing such activities, turn Crash Detection off until you’re done.
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