Friday August, 22 2025 @ 09:29

Nature: Automatic Crash Notification

Location: ITAO - 26799 Bay Farm Rd Millsboro, DE 19966

On Friday, August 22nd, the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company was alerted for an automatic crash notification on Bay Farm Road.  Additional emergency alerts included the Mid Sussex Rescue Squad Inc.

Emergency response units from Indian River included Tanker 80 from the Oak Orchard facility and Deputy Chief 80 from the Long Neck area.

Emergency response units evaluated the area for a vehicle accident but was unable to identify a vehicle accident however units did locate a dropped cellular phone in the area.  All emergency response units were cancelled and authorized to return to their quarters and the incident was closed.  The cellular phone was turned over to the Delaware State Police.

Our hope is to increase awareness within our immediate fire district to mitigate the quantity of these unwanted automatic crash notification incidents.

To reduce automatic crash notifications (ACNs) triggered by dropping a phone, you can either handle false alarms correctly, prevent the drops from happening, or temporarily disable the feature. A dropped phone can mimic the sudden, hard impact of a crash, which is why the detection is sometimes falsely triggered.

Managing Accidental Crash Notifications

• Responding to Alerts

If a dropped phone accidentally triggers a crash alert, there's a 10 to 20-second window to respond before emergency services are contacted.

Cancel the call immediately. Tap the "Cancel" or "I'm OK" button on the screen as soon as the alert appears.

Speak to the dispatcher. If the call connects, explain that everything is safe and there's no emergency. This prevents unnecessary dispatching of first responders.