Four people who are all under the age of 21 have serious injuries and are believed to be in critical condition after a vehicle went off the road, into the woods and hit a tree in the Mystic section of Groton early Monday morning.
Police said the crash happened on Fishtown Road near Little Gull Lane around 1:21 a.m. and they learned of it because of an iPhone Crash Detection call and then 911 calls.
The vehicle, a 2012 Toyota 4Runner, was the only vehicle involved in the crash and the four people in it were trapped, police said.
Emergency crews extracted them and they were treated at the scene. All four were in critical condition when they were brought to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, according to police.
Police said the preliminary investigation indicated that the driver was heading north on Fishtown Road, just south of the Mystic River Magnet School, when the 4Runner crossed the southbound lane, went off the road and hit a tree.
Magnum Desouza, of Mystic, heard the awful sound of the crash, ran outside and called 911. It’s a sound he said will stick with him.
“I could hear the speed from the road. And then I heard them braking right here, and by the time I looked outside the window, they were already, like, in the woods,” he said.
Then he called 911, ran to the scene of the crash and did what he could to help as much as possible.
“What hurt me the most is that I have a daughter, and I heard the parent coming there and hearing him cry out his son’s name,” Desouza said. “That’s something that will never, like, leave my mind, you know what I mean.”
People came to the scene throughout the day on Monday to leave flowers.
“There are no words for it , this is something that is going to change these young people’s lives forever,” Justin Allison said.
The Groton Police Department is investigating the crash.
The iPhone Crash Detection system, which initially alerted police, allows iPhones and Apple Watches to detect a severe crash and help the owner of the device contact emergency services. Learn more about it here.
State police said troopers are dispatched when they receive a call from the Apple crash detection system and the software saves lives.
Sometimes the alerts are accurate and they find the scene of a crash that had not been reported in any other manner. For example — a vehicle goes off the road, passersby cannot see it and the people in the vehicle are unconscious or entrapped.
“That crash detection alert system becomes a paramount tool in terms of alerting the State Police that someone is in need of immediate assistance,” state police said in a statement.
Alerts can also be faulty from time to time, state police said.
If a phone is mistakenly left outside of a vehicle, such as on the roof or trunk, and someone starts driving, the impact of the phone against the road can trigger the crash detection, but police said they treat every single one of the alerts the same and always respond.
Fishtown Road was closed for hours and has reopened.
Anyone who saw the crash or has other information asked to call the Groton Police Department at 860-441-6712.
[GL(1]