CHARLESTON, W.Va. –West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner is crediting his phone’s emergency contact feature with helping alert first responders after he was involved in a crash last Friday.
“Due to the motion of the phone bouncing around in the cabin of the vehicle, it sends a satellite, so you can see, even though there’s no cell service there, and it told the folks on the other end of the emergency response numbers where I was located and where the crash had occurred,” Warner said Monday on MetroNews Midday.
He said in a Facebook post Saturday that he was traveling along Route 33 at Judy Gap, headed to Pendleton County for a voter registration drive and to present three Centurion Awards, when the crash happened. He did not share additional details about what led to the wreck.
However, he later said on MetroNews Midday that he lost control on a curve after being blinded by the sun, causing him to hit his brakes.
“There were all these heavily covered cinders from the recent snowstorm, and I guess they use cinders there to provide traction on the hill, and when I hit the brakes, I went sailing across those cinders, and over an embankment, and the vehicle rolled up on its side,” Warner said.
He said he was able to climb out of the vehicle through the sunroof and was not injured.
Warner was thankful towards the motorists who stopped to check on him following the crash
“Not one vehicle drove by without stopping to say are you alright, some people wanted to stay, the certified nurse wanted to stay until other emergency responders showed up, just the most friendly people in the world,” he said.
Warner said in his Facebook post that his vehicle was likely totaled.