FLORENCE, Wis. — Florence County Sheriff Teresa Chrisman shared information Tuesday about an Oct. 17 crash in Fence, Wis., that she says illustrates the value of crash detection software.

Austin Mills, 18, was seriously injured in the one-vehicle crash and remains in intensive care at Aurora BayCare in Green Bay, Wis., where he is making strides to recovery, the sheriff said.

The Florence County dispatch center was alerted to the crash on Highway 101 near the Popple River at 5:55 a.m. through an automated message from an Apple iPhone, indicating the owner of the phone was unresponsive.

Emergency personnel responded and found Mills with severe head trauma and the vehicle badly damaged after leaving the road and rolling, Chrisman said in a Facebook post.

“After conclusion of the investigation, it was found he was not wearing his seatbelt and it appears as if he was attempting to avoid a collision with a deer,” Chrisman said.

Mills was taken to Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson and then airlifted to the Green Bay hospital.

“I truly believe the crash detection software that was enabled on Austin’s phone saved his life,” Chrisman said.

“This iPhone crash detection feature uses a combination of sensors to detect severe car crashes and automatically call emergency services. Sometimes as parents we loathe phones and how much teenagers are connected to them, but this feature is one every teenager and adult alike should have enabled on their phone,” the sheriff said.

Assisting Florence County deputies on scene were Fence Fire Department, Florence County Rescue and Integrity Care EMS.