A father in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, used a smartphone app to save the life of a farmer who was trapped under a 1,000-pound bale of hay.
Michael Moss, 39, was eating lunch outside when he heard screams for help coming from the fields behind his home. Moss ran towards the cries and found the farmer pinned to the ground and in excruciating pain. Unable to move the heavy bale himself, Moss dialed 999, the emergency number in the UK, but realized he couldn't provide an accurate location because of the rural area.
Thinking quickly, he decided to use the what3words app, which provides an accurate location for emergency services using three randomized words as a code. Moss provided the words "dads," "scorched," and "hairstyle" to the emergency call handlers, who were then able to pinpoint his location within a three-meter-square radius.
Paramedics arrived at the scene 15 minutes later and administered pain relief to the farmer before transporting him to the nearest hospital, which was an hour away. Moss believes that if he hadn't used the app, the farmer's injuries could have been much worse.
The what3words app works by dividing the globe into a grid of squares, with each square assigned a unique combination of three words.
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