A woman from the UK says her iPhone helped save her life after her car plunged nearly 330 feet down a mountainside and burst into flames moments after she escaped the wreckage. The crash happened on the Horseshoe Pass road in Denbighshire during the evening of June 2025, when 32-year-old Natalia Sidorska lost control of her car while driving on the unfamiliar road for the first time.
According to the BBC, Natalia’s iPhone automatically triggered Apple’s Crash Detection feature after the vehicle rolled down the hill and landed in a field below. The feature contacted emergency services and shared her location while she remained trapped inside the badly damaged car with serious injuries.
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Natalia later said she did not expect help to arrive so quickly because the crash site was deep down the mountainside and far away from the road above.
“I’m grateful to Apple for what the iPhone did,” Natalia told the BBC. “I don’t think that I would have been able to get help that quickly.”
The car burst into flames seconds after she escaped
Natalia admitted she was driving too fast on the winding road, which has a 40mph speed limit. She said she saw the sharp bend too late and could not regain control before the car left the road and rolled downhill.
She described hearing “the clicking fire noise” after the crash and realized the vehicle had caught fire. Because of severe leg injuries, she struggled to open the doors and initially believed she would die inside the car before suddenly remembering she had locked the doors before driving.
“I know it sounds like a movie, and if I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t believe it, but as soon as I looked at the car, it exploded,” she said. “It was literally seconds.”
Emergency teams, including firefighters and mountain rescue crews, reached her around 20 minutes later.
How iPhone Crash Detection works
Apple introduced Crash Detection with the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra. The feature uses motion sensors and accelerometers to detect severe crashes, then automatically calls emergency services if the user does not respond to an on-screen alert within seconds.
The system also shares the user’s location and Medical ID information with first responders, which becomes especially important in remote crashes or situations where drivers lose consciousness.
Natalia spent four months in hospital after the crash and underwent multiple surgeries for serious ankle and spine injuries that left her with permanent mobility problems. She has since moved to Liverpool with her son and started driving again using an adapted mobility vehicle.
She now says the accident changed her life permanently, but she also hopes other drivers learn from what happened on that road.
“And if you drive, no matter how good you are, always be cautious.”
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