Garmin Incident Detection Triggered After A Crash And Alerted My Wife

The Garmin Incident Detection feature is one of the most under-rated features in the Garmin Connect Ecosystem. Many of my friends and family either do not know it exists, or if they do, they tend to turn it off. I’m writing this to strongly urge you to reconsider. When the Garmin Incident Detection feature triggers, it can save you critical minutes when you’re in a crisis. Today, I came pretty close, and I’m glad I had it running on my Garmin 1030.

The Ride – Peavine Mountain, Total Recall and StageCoach Trails, the “Towers to Cairn Loop” on Strava.

Here’s the Strava and Ride With GPS link to my ride.

I was having a pretty good ride. I’ve been working hard on my business, and my clients are seeing a lot of success. This has occurred at the expense of my own performance, so I felt the need to roll out and enjoy some time on the singletrack. I rode a soft warmup loop with my wife and the dogs. The temperature was moderate, winds were nominal, and the light was flat. I left the family at the trailhead, punched in the Strava section for the local DRY trail loop, and started riding.

The Garmin showed that I was within 8 seconds or so of my Personal Record on the climb, but I was also climbing with my front and rear suspension activated. I was testing out a higher tire pressure and was relying on the suspension to do more work. The bike did not feel perfect – it was rebounding and bouncing off of rocks. Front and Rear tires were at 24psi.

I saw several other cyclists, but none were riding at my pace, or they were not on the same trail. Some were riding in the anti-clockwise direction. Basically, I had the trail to myself, and I was really working the berms to try and see if the decreased rolling resistance was worth the slipping and lack of edge bite in my Hans Dampf Tires. I crested the top of the climb about 18 seconds behind my PR, and decided to go for it and claw those seconds back on the StageCoach descent.

StageCoach Descent

On the descent, the bike and I kept launching off the tabletops. I’m not a Pro Downhiller – Big Air scares me. I’m 50 years old, I have crappy Health Insurance, and a lot of respect for the mountain. The Garmin recorded 2 jumps of maybe .5 seconds each, but I really worked to keep the tires on the ground, and stay balanced. Balance and centering on the bike are critical when you’re descending at speed. In many ways, a descent can be SAFER at speed, because the bike is flying over rock obstacles, the suspension is absorbing and rebounding to keep the tread in contact with the earth, and you’re at a lower center of gravity. This means I was traveling fast. The extra air in the tires was leaving me with less traction and control, so I was ‘on the edge’ of my abilities.

I know this trail VERY well. Strava and Ride With GPS show that I’ve ridden this trail at least 54 times since I moved up here. It’s one of my two “Go To” trails, and I have become comfortable with every rock, every berm, and even the new features, which Trailbuilder Kevin Joell installed in the Summer of 2020. The Garmin “Flow” Field for the field, which is maybe 3 Minutes, was pretty low, and lower in that Garmin metric is better.

I clawed back about 5 seconds over the route time, but with about 30 yards to go, there’s a gully that you have to hit JUST RIGHT, and absorb a lot of the rebound energy in the bike. Well, oops! I lost my balance, went airborne, and crashed, tumbling while clipped in, with two full impacts.

The Garmin Incident Detection CHIRP

My final impact on the ground was pretty hard, but I hit dirt and not rock on my lower right ribcage. While I lay on my back, my lower torso twisted and my bike still connected to me, I heard that Garmin CHIRP. I looked over at the unit, and it said “NEED HELP? NOTIFICATION WILL BE SENT IN”, and it started chirping a countdown.

I have 3 Contacts in my Emergency Contacts in Garmin Connect, which is a FABULOUS and UNDER-UTILIZED Web portal. The contacts are: My Wife, My Friend Billy, and my Mom. I ALWAYS ride with my phone, and I ALWAYS make sure my phone and my Garmin are connected before I leave for the ride. It’s almost like a cyclist’s version of GM’s “OnStar” system. When the Garmin head unit detects a high-g force shock, it triggers the Incident Detection Warning and Countdown.

I thought about canceling the Alert, but then I tried to get up, and I felt woozy. There was blood on my knees and my back was hurting. I knew I had hit my helmet, and I did not know if I had broken anything or if I had suffered a concussion.

THE CALLS

I let the Countdown finish. Within 30 seconds, my wife was on the phone, calling.

It felt good to hear her voice.

She stayed with me on the phone while I slowly pulled myself apart from the bike, and then moved to stand. My breath was still short, and I could not take a deep breath. I finally cleared out my head, and told her I was riding home.

She met me at the driveway, and I rolled in.

Later, I received a phone call from Billy – he had been away from his phone, but we both agreed that this was the right thing to do.

Later that evening, my mom called as well. Here’s her emergency message from Garmin…

Conclusion

The Garmin Incident Detection Feature is one more reason why I love my Garmin 1030 and Fenix 6X. There are SO MANY quality features in Garmin Connect, many of which are overlooked or ignored. I’m going to try to dig into these more. Yesterday, the Garmin Incident Detection feature properly activated when I had a crash in a semi-remote area with few people around. I am glad it did, even though I was able to pick myself up and ride home. NEXT TIME, I may not be as lucky.

One More Thing

And this is serious. I love cycling. I love riding a bike. But crashes happen, whether they’re solo or in groups or on trails or on roads. I have been learning and instructing since 1993, and I remain a student of the sport. But I’m not dumb and I’m not naive. Wrist ID bands are really just glorified Toe Tags. I know that stuff happens.

SO, I carry a tiny SD chip in my wallet and in my saddlebag, with a video I made and update now and then, that basically says,

“Hey – if you’re looking at this, I’m either dead or incapacitated. Here’s my Last Will and Testament, and here’s my Living Will. Use the data on my Garmin to determine whether this was my fault, or someone else’s, or was just an Act of God, which is doubtful. I have a life insurance policy with XXX. Know that I died doing something I love, and trying to share that passion with others. Thanks and move on with your own lives.”

Or something like that. I think the Garmin Incident Detection feature can help me avoid having anyone watch that vid, and hopefully, I’ll be cycling into my 90’s, like few others.

Thanks for reading, and Enjoy the Ride.