• A younger couple fell 300 toes from Angeles Crest Freeway northeast of Los Angeles on Tuesday.

• Cloe Fields advised Insider that an iPhone function she did not know she had might have saved their lives.

• The brand new Emergency SOS function detects crashes and makes use of satellites to contact emergency companies.

Cloe Fields and her boyfriend, Christian Zelada, on Tuesday have been taking a scenic drive by the Angeles Nationwide Forest, as they usually did, when issues took a flip for the worst— their automotive went over the sting of the mountain and tumbled 300 toes earlier than touchdown, the other way up, within the canyon beneath.

“Angeles Crest is our yard,” Fields, 23, advised Insider of the freeway that traverses the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. “We love driving up there. It is lovely, particularly after the rain.”

However at across the midway mark, the couple was being carefully adopted and honked at by one other automobile attempting to move on the dramatically winding roads, that are often used as a backdrop for automotive commercials. As they pulled over to provide the motive force some room to move, the automotive misplaced its traction and continued towards the cliff edge earlier than spinning off.

“The following factor we all know, we have been falling,” Fields stated, including she remembered saying her boyfriend’s title as they approached the sting: “I nonetheless could not register in my head.”

She stated she was in shock after they went over, however Zelada, 24, saved saying, “We’re okay, we’re okay, we’re okay,” till about midway down, when he thought to himself: “That is it. That is how it may finish.”

However after the automotive landed — the other way up and on the ground of Monkey Canyon — they have been miraculously alive.

They shortly unbuckled their seat belts, crawled out of the automobile, and checked one another for accidents or protruding objects however discovered nothing, just a few small cuts and bruises.

“The very first thing I stated was, ‘This did not occur,’” Fields stated. “I used to be in disbelief the entire time.”

It was round 2 p.m., about 40 levels exterior, and the couple was a whole bunch of toes beneath the freeway. They checked the automotive for his or her telephones however they have been gone. Fortunately, Zelada shortly discovered Fields’ iPhone 14 about ten yards up the hill. It was shattered and — as they anticipated — had no reception.

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“Anybody that goes up the Angeles Crest already is aware of there isn’t any service up there. It’s totally distant,” Fields stated.

However a message had popped up on the cellphone anyway, saying a crash had been detected and to swipe to contact emergency companies. Although the display screen seemed just like the cellphone “took a bullet,” it was nonetheless in ok form to textual content, which Fields’ credited to her having a display screen protector.

They started texting with the emergency companies supplier, explaining what had occurred and saying they wanted assist. The particular person on the opposite finish would instruct them to stroll a sure means or maintain their cellphone up in a sure course, with a purpose to assist their messages and placement data undergo.

Inside half-hour, they have been airlifted out of the canyon.

The message that appeared on the iPhone was a part of Apple’s new Emergency SOS by way of satellite tv for pc function, which has Crash Detection and Fall Detection software program and makes use of satellites to contact emergency companies when an iPhone is out of vary. The function connects the iPhone consumer to an emergency name heart, which might gather data and notify rescue companies.

The function, which Fields didn’t even know was on the iPhone she had solely just lately gotten, launched in mid-November. It is presently on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Professional units operating iOS 16.1 or later and is on the market within the US, Canada, France, Germany, Eire, and the UK.

Emergency SOS by way of satellite tv for pc additionally permits customers to share their location with family and friends in the event that they’d prefer to examine in whereas touring off the grid. It is also free for 2 years after an iPhone 14 is first activated, in response to Apple.

“If we did not discover my cellphone or nobody knew we have been down there, it may’ve been so much worse,” Fields stated.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, the Los Angeles County Fireplace Division, patrol items, and air rescue all responded to the scene after being contacted by the emergency service heart, LASD Sergeant John Gilbert stated in a press release supplied to Insider.

Fields stated she was nonetheless shaken up and hyperventilating because the rescuers arrived on the scene, and one fireman tried to cheer her up by saying: “Smile, you are alive.”

At the same time as she was being lifted out of the canyon and up right into a helicopter, her mind was nonetheless processing what had occurred. And though she’s afraid of heights, all she remembered considering was: “Thank God, we’re going, we’re leaving this.”

Photos and videos shared by LASD confirmed the automobile because it was noticed from the helicopter in addition to the second the couple was lifted out of the canyon.

The couple was transported to a hospital and evaluated however have been again at dwelling with their canine later that night time. They each have had complications and neck ache, and Zelada might have a concussion, however she stated she was grateful they’d made it by the ordeal comparatively unscathed.

Fields stated it’s going to take extra time for her to course of what occurred, however that the near-death expertise reminded her that “life goes on.”

“The questions I have been considering to myself are: What is the cause why I am nonetheless right here? What was the aim? What’s God’s function for me to maintain on going?”

Have a information tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.

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