Systems and methods for accident notification

A portable device comprising:

• a non-transitory memory to store machine readable instructions and data;
• and
• a sensing system configured to generate a sensed signal indicative of one of a sensed motion and an audio detected by the sensing system, wherein the sensing system comprises an accelerometer configured to generate a plurality of acceleration measurements along axes for the portable device over a period of time;
• a processor to access the non-transitory memory and execute the machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions causing the processor to:
• determine a jerk value for each axis of a plurality of axes of the accelerometer based on an absolute value difference between an earlier measured acceleration and subsequent measured acceleration over the period of time along a given axis, and further based on a time difference over the period of time between the earlier and subsequent acceleration measurements;
• generate an alert based on the sensed signal and the determined jerk value;
• encode an assistance request comprising location information for the portable device in response to the alert;
• and
• transmit the encoded assistance request to a server to cause the server to transmit an assistance summons request to one or more selected devices that a user associated with the portable device is need of assistance.