A South African biker’s post-accident medical treatment was delayed after the SOS feature on his Garmin satellite communicator failed to evoke a timely response from emergency services.
Rapport reports that Johan Swarts only received a call from responders while in hospital on the day after he suffered a serious crash, despite paying a R574.99 (US$31) monthly subscription for the service.
He told Rapport that a Garmin product manager only responded two months after his complaints and said the SOS was only received on 18 February, a day after the accident.
So, yes testing is important as well as informing someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, but this is extremely concerning as such devices (along the expense they incur) are intended for use in the most dire emergencies. South Africa, as well as the rest of Africa, has some very isolated areas.
As of 2024 there are yet no reliable satellite services in Africa for ordinary cellphones, so the only option is a full-blown satellite phone (of course with its associated cost that many cannot afford).
Seems it did actually work if the message came through a day later. But where did it come through to a day later, and why? It's like a key piece of the puzzle is just missing here. Certainly a radio transmission is almost instantaneous, it does not transmit "slowly" over 24 hours. Seems to me, there was some human or system failure between the UK and SA? Due to the nature of this service, it warrants a really thorough investigation.
@Darren Olivier that's what I'm strongly suspecting too! I also made an emergency call a few weeks ago to City of Cape Town SOS line for a guy walking in the forest with an axe. So after lots of questions and my GPS coords etc they transfer me to SAN Parks as it was their area. I'd asked to speak to a ranger and they were supposed to send a vehicle up to my location. Eventually I got down to the ranger's office and no-one knew about the call. So who was I speaking to. There is a big problem with communicating and an SOS line is basically useless if you don't reach who you need to quickly.
The rangers told me they know the guy though and he was there to clear alien vegetation, but no uniform or jacket etc. I had taken q photo of him while following him.
@gadgeteer That's so ridiculous. It seems there's been a lot of effort to roll out new customer-side SOS alert and notification services without enough thought and development of the actual operational response side.
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