Miss Ohio: SOS could save your life
Miss Ohio 2019 Caroline Grace Williams visited Dayton to encourage residents to activate a feature on their smartphones that she says can save lives.
Williams, who was Miss Montgomery County before being crowned Miss Ohio last month, was in a serious automobile crash in November.
Williams, 24, of Cincinnati, said she used the Emergency SOS feature on her phone to get help quickly.
Emergency SOS is available on iPhones and Android devices and can be turned on in settings, she said.
The feature allows people to call 911 by pressing their side button (power) five times on iPhones and three times on Android phones, she said.
That allows people to call 911 quickly and discretely, if countdown sounds are disabled, without having to look at their phones.
Once SOS is activated, the phone locks and the only information that can be seen is a medical ID, which can show people’s health conditions, allergies, blood type and medications, she said.
Phone owners can add emergency contacts, who during emergencies will be sent text messages saying 911 has been called and provide information about the cell phone location.
Williams also said she is advocating for communities to adopt police dispatch technology that allows people to text 911.
“You never know when you are going to be in a situation where you can’t call,” she said.
Dayton Commissioners Matt Joseph and Jeff Mims Jr. urged citizens to review the information Williams shared and consider using the safety feature.