Where did smartwatches in a mosh pit trigger 700 accidental emergency calls?

Fall and crash detection features on smartwatches have mostly proven helpful, in some cases even saving lives. But there is one situation in which these features are the opposite of helpful: mosh pits. All the activity in a mosh pit can easily trigger unnecessary emergency calls from wearable devices.

The three-day Download Festival is considered one of the premier events for metal fans, with plenty of mosh pits. Festival organizers and local law enforcement encouraged attendees to disable their fall and crash detection features, pointing out that in previous years they had received nearly 700 accidental emergency calls during the event.

“The tech assumed that people in mosh pits had been in a collision, causing 999 contacts and abandoned 999 calls. All those calls had to be assessed, with three outbound call attempts completed to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls,” the local Leicestershire police wrote on Facebook. They encouraged this year’s festivalgoers to put their wearable devices in airplane mode and/or disable emergency alerts.