Cyclist says Apple Watch saved his life after driver knocked him off bike

A cyclist from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire says his Apple Watch saved his life after he was knocked off his bike.

Jay Dixon, aged 48, was thrown into the air when the motorist drove into him last Thursday lunchtime, reports the Grimsby Telegraph.

His Apple Watch immediately alerted his partner and the emergency services that he had been involved in a crash.

He told the newspaper: “I was cycling down Grimsby Road in Cleethorpes at about midday on Thursday when I tried to turn down Suggitts Lane.

“However, as I did so, a car pulled out of Lestrange Street and drove straight into me.

“I came straight off the bike and was immediately concussed.

“The driver came over to see me, but I was incredibly tired and drifting in and out of consciousness.

“There was a moment when I was laid on the floor and I thought ‘do I wake up or lay here and give in’?

“I kept trying to get up, but I just couldn't manage it, I was incredibly lucky. If I'd have collided with the car a few more inches to the right I think I would be dead.”

Luckily, the device on his wrist immediately sent out an alert.

“When I fell, my watch sent out an emergency signal to the emergency services and my partner,” he explained.

“It had detected I'd taken a fall and sent my exact location to both parties. It tells you exactly what's happened and my partner was there within 15 minutes.”

His injuries were fortunately mainly confined to cuts and bruises, and he said: “I'm so grateful to everyone that stopped to help, I don't know their names, but it was so kind of them to do that.

“Thanks also to my sister in law who came to my aid. I may have sore knees, elbows and back, but I'll get back on my bike one day for sure.”

As this article on Phonearena.com covering the incident explains, if you own an Apple Watch SE or Apple Watch Series 4 or later, there are a couple of things you need to do to activate the Fall Detection feature.

It is automatically enabled should your date of birth when you set up the watch reveal your age to be 55 years of age or above.

Even then, ‘wrist detection’ needs to be turned on, otherwise even a hard impact will not generate an alert.

To do that, you need to go to Settings on the watch (or via the Apple Watch App on an iPhone), then SOS, and turn on Fall Detection.

You can also set Fall Detection so that it operates all the time, or only during workouts.