An intoxicated Dunedin driver was dobbed in by his iPhone’s automatic crash detection feature after he hit a tree.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said a 46-year-old man crashed his car into a tree in the centre barrier of Andersons Bay Rd about 1am yesterday.
The driver’s iPhone called police automatically, Snr Sgt Bond said.
While the man told police dispatchers not to worry, officers were sent to investigate as the man sounded intoxicated.
When officers arrived, they discovered the man had been drinking, Snr Sgt Bond said.
The man tried to push an officer away and refused to undergo drink-driving procedures, he said.
The driver was arrested and charged with refusing to provide a blood sample and resisting police.
The incident was the first he was aware of where the recently introduced iPhone feature had led to a post-crash police investigation and charges being laid, Snr Sgt Bond said.
Emergency services had received several false alarms since the feature was introduced late last year, including for people who had left their phone on top of their car and driven away without noticing it was there, Snr Sgt Bond said.
