Butt-call to Siri saves teenager’s life
A Tennessee man might not be alive had he not “butt-dialed” Siri on his iPhone.
Sam Ray, 18, said the accidental phone call saved his life after he was pinned under a truck while home alone. A month ago, Ray was in the Vanderbilt Trauma Unit after being crushed underneath his truck.
“I had a funny noise underneath that I thought needed attention,” he said. “So I got underneath there and located the noise.”
The jack he was using fell apart and sent the nearly 5,000 pound truck crashing down on his chest and limbs.
“It felt like my leg was breaking because I could feel it bending,” Ray said.
As Ray tried to free his leg, his iPhone lit up in his back pocket. It was Siri.
“You know when Siri goes off at the most inopportune time? I was like, ‘Why are you going off?'” Ray said.
Ray realized Siri was there to help. While on his back, his body somehow hit the phone’s home button. Doctors called it “the butt-dial that saved his life.”
“I said, ‘Call 911,’ and that was all it said,” Ray said.
The bulk of the comments to the story, however, are not about its heart-warming aspects. They’re about Ray’s lack of attention to one of the cardinal rules of getting under your car. Here’s a typical suggestion:
“Looking back on it, he and his family said Ray must be here for a reason and purpose.”
Yes, to spread the good news to others to always use jackstands or ramps and never work under a vehicle using only a jack. Especially one that “falls apart”.
It’s a good thing he keeps his brains where they could call for help.
Let me just say that I will take heed. I will never be working under a vehicle at all if I can possibly help it.
In fact, I won’t even go near my vehicle if a snapping turtle is taking a nap under it. When that happened, I called the police and they sent the fire department to remove the turtle. That sucker was big (both the turtle, and the fire truck). Here’s a photo I took; I refused to get too close so it’s rather dark, but you can see the size of the turtle relative to the car, although the turtle actually looked somewhat larger in real life:
Yes indeed, I’m a wimp.
From that fine silhouette your snapper looks to be a 15 pounder.
My wife had to help save one a couple of years ago; it had crawled out onto the middle of the road and she encountered it while on the way to the store. She and another driver pulled over and he (the other driver) coaxed it off the road using her tennis racket. She just watched, but took 50% of the credit.
You were wise not to touch it; when they bite they won’t let go until it thunders (or so they say down here in Dixie).
You should’ve coaxed it out with a green apple.
An uncle of mine was killed when his car fell on him. His wife, my aunt, was killed shortly after when the car she was riding in had a blowout and a rolled over. I was but a babe at the time, but it was a family story that I heard several times.
As a senior in high school one of my classmates was killed when the jack kicked out from a car he was working under. I won’t go into specifics but the damage was severe enough that it was a closed casket funeral. That was almost 50 years ago and the memory is still fresh. I still occasionally work on my vehicles but wouldn’t think about crawling under one without jack-stands.
I didn’t know they had snapping turtles so far north. (I assume this is at your home.) Snapping turtles are disturbing creatures. They look evil. Yet I suspect that if that turtle had been under my car I would have messed with it, just to see. And perhaps have thereby made myself the subject of many jokes. “Did he ever tell you why he only has three toes on his right foot?”
Mac:
They are very common here, and yes, I am quite far north. This article says they can weigh up to 75 pounds in the wild. I saw one near my home once that looked at least that big.
Those snapping turtles have an amazing bite. Have you seen the youtube video of one biting a chunk out of a watermelon?
Years ago my mother and I came upon a huge one in the middle of a road. A knowledgeable animal lover, my mother knew not to go near it, but didn’t want to leave it in danger. With the help of another passerby (I was a child) she tried to encourage the thing off the road using a long, thick tree branch. But when the branch came near it, out shot that turtle’s head on an astonishingly long and mobile neck. It snapped shut its jaws on the branch – several inches thick – and sliced it right through. I could not believe the reach it had, with that long neck, and the swift ferocity of that bite.
We backed off, but then a telephone truck stopped. The driver got the turtle to bite down on a length of thick metal telephone cable and, when those fierce jaws latched on, used the cable to tow the turtle out of the road. I don’t remember whether he got the turtle to let go or whether he had to leave the cable in its jaws. But either way, you were no wimp to call for help, Neo! Distance is the better part of valor in dealing with those critters.
Don’t mean to be a pedant, but you should say that the Tennessee man MIGHT not be alive, not that he MAY not be alive. The might/may distinction is disappearing, just like the lie/lay distinction.
Snapping turtles are not be messed with- they can easily sever fingers and bite out pieces of flesh. One that size, I might well have used a long broom to push it out from under the car, but some of the older adults can be too large to push in such a manner.
Even jack stands aren’t always safe. A friend was working under his car and had a cheap jack stand collapse. He noticed that the car was moving and got out from under the car before it completely gave way. After that he bought some heavy duty jack stands.
At least it wasn’t a teenage mutant ninja snapping turtle. Don’t mess with those!
About fifteen years ago I came across a young (about 6″ diameter) snapping turtle crossing a street near my home (not uncommon since I live behind a state park and high land swamps.) A young woman, in her twenties, stopped and started to nudge the turtle across the road with a…, wait for it, romance novel. I stopped and told her, “Ma’am, you shouldn’t do that. That turtle can reach around and bite one of your fingers off!”
The woman thanked me for my advice and kept nudging the turtle along with her paperback. Nothing happened and I left, but that was a disaster waiting to happen.
On another time, I passed by a approx. 12″ snapper walking down my road. Its top shell was covered in algae and the thing looked like a miniature dinosaur.
I guess what I’m trying to say is the best thing that you can give a snapping turtle is distance.
KRB
mizpants:
That actually was a careless error. I’ll fix it, thanks.
There have been three deaths in my area in recent months due to a vehicle falling on someone.
The other thing to keep in mind is what is the jack and jack stands sitting on? If its just dirt they can sink or shift. I drive a 1994 S10 pickup with over 330,000 miles on it. I do a lot of the work myself. Recently changed the bushings on the drivers side upper control arm. I have never heard of a new vehicle having to have those replaced. But at my mileage I guess its understandable. I also changed the upper ball joint on the drivers side at the same time. It was the original! Had to drill out the factory rivets. the new one came with bolts and nuts….
Mizpants, thank you, thank you. I thought I was the only one.
Well, Neo, maybe you are a “wimp.” But, at least you’re a wimp that has all your fingers and toes.
Or are you holding up that apple to cover up a snapping turtle bitten off nose?
Seriously, as others have said here – snapping turtles are not to be treated lightly. They do have a rather nasty attitude toward anyone that comes near them. They will feel threatened and “snap” thereby latching onto you (your fingers or toes, or whatever part of your arm or leg is too near) and NOT let go.
You are quite lucky that you found that snapper before you stepped too near your car with open-toed shoes.
While I’m glad the driver is OK, it reminded me of a series of humorous posters from the 1990’s.
It was of a sunken ship with the following caption:
MISTAKES-It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others
If you need a tongue in cheek smile for the day, here is the link with different “demotivational” posters
🙂
http://despair.com/collections/posters
charles:
Yes, I’m lucky. Actually, a neighbor called to give warning. She had seen the snapper under the car. I would have gone out there and not noticed it; it was sort of in shadow, as you can see from the photo.