A phone call from his Apple Watch saved a cyclist hanging from a tree over flooded UK river

The cyclist lost control and was washed away downstream for nearly a mile, after he was quickly swept into the fast-flowing part of the river, calling the authorities while he hung from a tree branch.

The call for help might not have taken place at all, had it not been for the cyclist’s Apple Watch - he was hanging on for dear life onto a branch of a tree.

The Apple Watch is one of the most capable pieces of wearable technology currently available today, and the useful features it packs in like an ECG monitor, calling and assistant integration have saved many a life since the first Apple Watch was released. In the latest such instance, a cyclist who was trapped in a river in the United Kingdom was saved by his Apple Watch.

According to the BBC, the unidentified cyclist was caught in the flooded river Wye near Rotherwas, Hereford. While the cyclist lost control and was washed away downstream for nearly a mile, after he was “quickly swept into the fast-flowing part of the river,” according to Sean Bailey, a rescue station commander that responded to the cyclist's call.

In fact, that call might not have taken place at all, had it not been for the cyclist's Apple Watch - he was hanging on for dear life onto a branch of a tree that he managed to grab hold of while the swollen river Wye river surged under him, according to the station commander. The cyclist had called the rescue station using the hands free calling feature, which allowed them to reach him as soon as possible, he added.

There have already been several instances in which the capable Apple Watch has saved human lives, from falls, near fatal accidents, diagnosing dangerous medical conditions. The device is able to make regular calls as well as ‘Emergency SOS' calls to first responders in the area. It achieves this using 4G networking capabilities built into the device, or using another paired iPhone if one is within range.