Injured Biker Saved by her Twitter Followers
EmailABC News' Tess Scott reports:
When Leigh Fazzina, a 36-year-old social media consultant, got lost and injured during a triathlon in an unfamiliar 300-acre Connecticut forest, she knew exactly what to do. She tweeted. After completing the first portion of the Farmington Connecticut Traithlon, Fazzina jumped on her bike to complete the second portion. She pedaled hard for several miles, focusing on the uneven ground in front of her. Then Fazzina noticed something strange. She was alone and riding on an unmarked trail. She was lost in the woods. The sun began to set. Panicked, Fazzina pedaled harder and faster, hoping to find her way back to the designated trail. Suddenly, her bike hit a root. Fazzina sailed over the handlebars of her bike and smacked hard onto the ground.
“I was beat up, hyperventilating.”
Fazzina screamed out but nobody answered. She waited for people to pass on bikes, but nobody rode by. After waiting 10 minutes, she crawled to her bike and found her BlackBerry. She dialed her cousin, who was at home. The phone rang and then disconnected. Rang and disconnected.
“I couldn’t get a ring. I looked at the phone and saw that it only had one or two bars. So I immediately thought Twitter. I’m going to Twitter.”
She opened her UberTwitter application on her phone and tweeted this to her “followers”:
I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in woods.
Fazzina’s tweet went out to her 1,000-plus followers. Within minutes “tweeps” from Pennsylvania, Canada, Italy and even Southwest Asia banded together to help. Half a dozen people contacted the Farmington Fire Department and Police Service.
Ambulances found Fazzina within minutes and took her to UConn Hospital, where she recovered fully.
Some people criticized Fazzina for using social media in an emergency, bashing the social media “fad.”
Despite the negativity, Fazzina has no regrets.
“Hopefully at the end of the day it can prove to the naysayers that these technologies can be miraculous. They can be life savers.”
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911?
Posted by: What | August 5, 2010, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm
GREAT JOB reporting – your fan club is proud! Congrats.
Posted by: moonwatcher | August 5, 2010, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
Hey “What” – she couldn’t get enough bars for a phone signal so she couldn’t call 911.
Posted by: Duh | August 5, 2010, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
This woman is a public relations and social media PR executive and she looks to be very experienced and well-known in that biz. Go to her website. Look at all she has accomplished. Then got look at her LinkedIn profile! She’s smart!!!!
She waited a while, then needed help, then though on her feet when her audio/voice calls were dropped to her family. So she used the next best piece of technology that would get her an immediate result. That’s true PR if I ever knew it to be! And that is very smart! Many of us would not think to use social networks tools but I imagine if you are using them every day like this woman is, its becomes second nature or maybe even first nature.
I work for a Fortiune 100 Company and our marketing deprtmnt developed a policy and set of rules on use of using these social media networks. They take it very seriously and have held classes with different departyments to educate us on how they are influencial. I fully understand why this woman did Twitter. Very smart!
Posted by: Todd Brecker | August 5, 2010, 8:03 pm 8:03 pm
I want to know what carrier she had???
Posted by: rule the air | August 5, 2010, 8:47 pm 8:47 pm
According to other accounts, there was a wi-fi antenna in the area, so her Twitter response was right on the nose. We have already seen the power of Twitter in helping people get emergency help, as in Chile after the massive earthquake. People in that country rallied by sharing info on medical and food assistance on Twitter. Thank goodness Ms.Fazzina had the foresight of mind to tap into this technology to get rescue help.
Posted by: Carmen | August 5, 2010, 9:03 pm 9:03 pm
Cell phone carrier = irrelevant!
Rescued through the Twitter = relevant!
This chick = brilliance!
Now get on with it.
Posted by: Jasmine K. | August 5, 2010, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
How can anyone possibly criticize her for using Twitter to save herself? If she couldn’t call anyone, 911 included, and couldn’t get out of there on her own due to being lost and injured, then what other options did she have? I applaud her for using the next best thing to phone calls.
Posted by: Jason | August 5, 2010, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm
I applaud anyone who possesses the smarts to think clearly in an emergency, but Leigh Fazzina is brilliant for figuring out a way to use social media to call for help. And, when it’s the ONLY solution, we should all be thanking her for letting us know what we should do if we’re ever in a similar situation. Thanks, Leigh!
Posted by: Robin Taney | August 5, 2010, 10:42 pm 10:42 pm
Patsy writes in Portuguese:
“She is a warrior, in her place I do not know if could do it!”
Posted by: Bella | August 5, 2010, 10:54 pm 10:54 pm
Leigh was innovative and resourceful despite being injured, disoriented, frightened and alone. The relationships she’s created on Twitter are strong enough that when that was the only network/contact with others she had, using it to cry for help made perfect sense. It only worked because of Leigh’s presence there. She has followers who know, trust and care for her. Kudos to Leigh and to her caring followers for taking advantage of a communications tool in a crisis situation.
Posted by: Marijean | August 6, 2010, 8:19 am 8:19 am
Good job an using twitter to help you out. I was in a solo ice climbing accident last year with no cell/wifi service whatsoever and if…if I had any type of service to get a distress call out, I would have done the same thing. Unfortunately I didnt and I had to get myself out. So good job on utilizing twitter to get out of a situation that could have gotten worse. Peace Phil
Posted by: phil | August 6, 2010, 8:19 am 8:19 am
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Posted by: kevin | August 30, 2010, 7:21 am 7:21 am