Grueling bike crash left her husband stranded and unseen — then one notification on her phone led her to him before help arrived
Accidents can happen anywhere, but never being able to inform our loved ones when we're in trouble is something that can be scary for anybody. When Arizona resident Dustin Haynes was riding his motorcycle at night, he met with a major crash on New River Road between Carefree Highway and I-17. While Dustin was left stranded and unseen, one notification on his wife's phone helped her arrive at the crash site in time to save his life before anyone could call 911, as reported by Fox10 on Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
Dustin Haynes has been riding motorcycles for over 20 years. On Friday, January 2, 2026, the Arizona resident was riding at around 9:00 p.m. when he met with a major crash on New River Road. According to PEOPLE, Dustin's wife, Brooke, had been trying to reach him; however, he wasn't picking up her calls. That's when she received a notification on her phone, alerting her that her husband may have been in a crash. The "urgent" alert had come from the Cardo Packtalk Pro Bluetooth device, which was attached to his helmet. "Dustin might have been in a car accident or an accident, so I was like, 'I'll just drive out there, it's 30 minutes away, just to double-check," she told Fox10.
Brooke immediately drove to the pinned destination while calling 911 on her way, and the sight of her husband left her shocked. According to Hoodline, Brooke witnessed Dustin in "extremely bad shape." Surprisingly, he was also thrown into a place where nobody could spot him. "I don't think people would have found him until morning," she noted. The officers arrived about ten minutes later. She believed that the bike crash may have occurred while he was trying to avoid an animal. Unfortunately, Dustin suffered a concussion and brain bleeding and was in a medically induced coma. His fractures include more than 20 broken bones in the neck and spine. For his recovery expenses, the wife created a GoFundMe page for $9,000, which has managed to raise over $8,500 so far. As for the alert, Brooke is "eternally grateful" for the device that helped her track her husband on time.
Crash detection devices can be extremely helpful during emergencies. In a 2022 study authored by Peter Lee et al., the review analyzed studies published between 2010 and 2021, examined 1,268 papers from major databases, and selected 57 of them to examine trends in smart helmet technology. The findings revealed that smart helmet research is most prominent in industrial, sports, first responder, and health monitoring contexts, with industrial applications dominating prototype development. Due to its key features, researchers grouped it under four categories, including activity, physiological, and environmental (hazard) risk sensing, as well as risk event alerting. By being able to notify Brooke about her husband's well-being, the crash detection device was able to save his life in time.
More on Amplify
16-year-old met with a car accident was trapped inside—a brilliant feature on her iPhone saved her