SURRY COUNTY, N.C. – A North Carolina teen wants to spread awareness about the benefits of phone-tracking apps, which she says saved her life following a car crash in Surry County last weekend.
Seventeen-year-old Macy Smith was stuck alone in an embankment for nearly seven hours.
"The first hour, I was frantic," Smith said. "I was looking for ways to get out and I was thinking of just different things I could do."
Pinned down, she was unable to find her phone. She says the only thing she could do was touch her Bible.
"Since the second I laid my hand on that Bible, I knew that that was God telling me that it was all in His hands and it was happening for a reason and that I would be OK," Smith said.
Finally, she heard a car stop and the door shut.
"I hadn't cried the whole time that I was under my car at all but when my stepdad got down to the car and held my hand through the sunroof, I couldn't hold it in anymore," she said.
"I can't even imagine how a person her age remained calm and I'm just grateful for her faith and I'm grateful for her grit," said her mother, Catrina Alexander.
Her family members found her using the Find My Friends app, which tracks Apple devices like iPhones.
Smith and her mom both say the app made all the difference in the world.
"Having that location, if we didn't have that we would have never known where to look because I think her GPS took her a different way than it normally would have," Alexander said.
Smith has a fractured neck and lots of nerve damage in her left arm. She has a long road to recovery ahead. She says, along with getting better, her mission is to spread the word about the importance of apps like these.
"I definitely feel like God spared my life for a reason," Smith said. "I want to share my message because teenagers need to hear it from me. If you had been through what I've been through you would never say that you didn't want that app."
Now, Smith's family is using the Life360 app. They say it has more features than the Find My Friends app, and as they have demonstrated, you never know when it might make all the difference in the world.