Butt Dial Saves Teen: Apple’s Siri Credited With Life-Saving Measure For Trapped Teenager
A butt dial happens countless times daily, and it can be embarrassing. But when it saves a teen’s life, it’s priceless.
A Murfreesboro man’s life was saved last month from an unlikely source: Apple’s Siri. The story is quite amazing and revealed a powerful benefit to the new voice technology. Based on an August 15 Fox17 update, Sam Ray, 18, is recovering from injuries sustained from a July 2 accident in Tennessee.
The teen was working on a truck at the time when a jack used to support the vehicle collapsed. Five thousand pounds bore down. Then, a miracle happened: the teen accidentally butt dialed 911 operators. Ray recalls hearing the familiar voice from his Apple iPhone device.
“When I heard a woman talking from inside my pocket, I just started shouting. I didn’t know if she could hear me or not, but I heard her say that help was just around the corner.”
After 40 minutes of being trapped underneath his truck, the teenager was rescued by scores of first responders. Thankfully, the accidental butt dialing maneuver saved his life. He suffered broken ribs, a bruised kidney and burns from having his arms trapped against hot exhaust pipes. Now, he wants to be a minister and spread the gospel about life.
#Siri saves Middle Tennessee teen’s life after truck slips, falls on top of him http://t.co/fPSn6liIbZ pic.twitter.com/6RmlSPJGbQ
— WATE 6 On Your Side (@6News) August 15, 2015
According to a Yahoo News report, the actual method the man used to pull off the butt dial stunt is unclear. However, he did say he managed to “push up on his hip” before dialing 911 emergency operators.
“The good thing is that Siri must have understood his voice (which she isn’t yet perfect at) and the dispatchers evidently heard him and proceeded to get him help. Siri appears to understand various emergency-related commands, such as ‘call’ ‘cops’ ‘police’ and ’emergency services.'”
In an unrelated story, apparently, accidental calls are not protected under privacy rights. According to a July report by Inquisitr, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a woman who listened to a butt-dialed call by two of her bosses for some 91 minutes. The court said listening to a call meant for someone else in the caller’s contact list is “technically avoidable” and due to negligence.
“Butt dialing is very common. For example, a couple of years ago, New York City 911 operators received nearly 4 million accidental calls from cell phones on account of butt dialing. A federal appeals court in Cincinnati heard the case of a woman who used one of these accidental phone calls to eavesdrop on conversations between two of her superiors at work. The call lasted 91 minutes. Not only did Carol Spaw listen to the conversations of her bosses, she also took notes and recorded the final few minutes of the butt-dialed call with an iPhone that was nearby!”
Although Siri has some challenges in voice recognition and hasn’t ironed out many wrinkles with the software, it’s good that a simple butt dial act saved a teen’s life.
[Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images]
