Bob Burdett was nearing the end of his bicycle ride just before noon on Sept. 15 to meet his son, Gabe Burdett, for an afternoon of mountain biking at Riverside State Park.
The 62-year-old had already pedaled several miles from his South Hill home along High Drive Parkway, by High Bridge Park and across sections of the Centennial Trail.
In fact, Burdett was going to be early for his 12:30 p.m. rendezvous with his son. But as he coasted to the bottom of Doomsday Hill, Burdett approached a turn at a little more than 20 mph.
His bike veered right. His body flew left.
Then his helmeted head hit the ground so hard it knocked him unconscious – hard enough for his Apple Watch to feel it.
“A hit that hard could have killed me if I weren’t wearing it,” Burdett said. He had to replace it.
Burdett was bleeding profusely above his left eye. His shoulder and some ribs were put out of place. Road rash extended from his elbow to his shoulder.
Burdett’s memory went black moments before the crash. Then he woke up in an ambulance on its way to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
His Apple Watch had called 911 through the fall detection feature, which sends out an alert if the wearer is immobile for 60 seconds after a fall.
His watch messaged emergency medical services at 12:02 p.m. and an ambulance was there within a minute. Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said Burdett’s crash is the first instance he’s aware of in Spokane where an Apple Watch alerted 911 to a hard fall.
“I think it’s just another opportunity for the fire service to leverage technology and use it to improve people’s lives,” Schaeffer said.
Spokane Valley Fire Department spokesperson Julie Happy said dispatchers did not recall an instance where an Apple Watch had alerted medical personnel to an accident scene.
As opposed to social media or GPS tracking apps, Schaeffer said the Apple Watch fall detection feature offers extra reassurance by not relying on a person to alert first responders.
“It calls 911 automatically, which is pretty remarkable,” said Schaeffer, who uses the feature himself.
That’s when Gabe Burdett, 42, got a text from his dad.
Gabe Burdett saw the text about the fall from his dad’s Apple Watch as he pulled up to their meeting spot in Riverside State Park, but his dad was already being treated. He searched the bottom of Doomsday Hill and was headed back toward Riverside State Park when his dad’s location updated to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
“It was amazing,” Gabe Burdett said. “It’s worth the price of admission for a piece of hardware like that. It’s invaluable,” Gabe Burdett said.
He said he plans to buy his own Apple Watch.
