The jack collapsed when Ray was trying to make repairs underneath his truck, causing the 5,000 pound vehicle to fall on him and in turn trapping his arms. “This arm was above my head, tangled up. I know it was on the exhaust because it was burnt from here up,” Ray said. To make things worse, he was alone at home and in an area in which he likely wouldn’t have been seen or heard by anyone until it was too late. While trying to free himself, Ray accidentally pressed the home button on his iPhone, which in turn, activated the Siri button. That’s when he repeatedly told Siri to “call 911”. After several tries, the call went through and he heard Rutherford County dispatcher Christina Lee on the line.
Lee initially believed the call was a “pocket-dial,” but then realized it was a plea for help. “The greatest thing he did was keep saying his address so we could get everybody there,” said Lee, because the cellphone signal can only lead dispatchers to a general location. Emergency responders took Ray to the Vanderbilt LifeFlight based in Murfreesboro. Ray was trapped under the truck for 40 minutes. “He had broken the seventh, eighth, ninth and eleventh ribs which are lower ribs, and then he had probably crushed his kidney. It was torn and bruised,” said Dr. Richard Miller, the Chief of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care. Ray is still recovering, after a month of traumatic experience. He thanks the responders and dispatcher who acted quickly, the power of prayer, and of course, Siri. Commenting on Siri, Ray told NBC “I guess I’m stuck with an iPhone for the rest of my life. I owe them that.”
