Apple’s “Find My Friends” service and app has helped a mother locate her missing teenage daughter who had been left trapped after a car crash.
Macy Smith, 17, was driving on a wet road, when she hydroplaned off the road on Pilot Mountain in Mount Airy, N.C. The car flipped and rolled three times down a 25-foot embankment. When the car came to a stop, Smith was trapped under the vehicle.
As Smith was out beyond curfew, her mother, Catrina Alexander attempted to call and text her daughter, but didn’t receive a reply. Alexander then turned to the Find My Friends app, which the pair had set up last year. The app shares GPS locations between users.
Via the app, Alexander then saw that Smith had been in the same location for a long period of time.
“The lack of response was out of character for her,” Catrina said in an interview with WFMY News.
Catrina then rushed to the location indicated on the app, to find that Smith was pinned under her vehicle. “I can’t explain watching the GPS on my phone with my dot for my phone getting close to hers and then suddenly seeing the tire tracks,” Alexander said.
Catrina immediately called 911, spurring emergency services to arrive and remove her daughter from under the car and rush her to the hospital.
Thankfully, Smith emerged relatively unscathed from the accident. She is suffering from a lack of feeling in her left arm for awhile, but is otherwise okay. “I just hope that all parents and teenagers will encourage their families to get this app,” Macy said.