Automotive accidents are a leading cause of severe injuries and loss of life. The chances of survival and recovery for the victims depend greatly on the time taken for them to receive medical attention. In this paper, the development of a vehicular accident detection and alert system has been discussed. The main purpose of the device is to help reduce Emergency Response Services (EMS) response time by eliminating the delay in alerting emergency services of an accident. The system consists of a standalone device that can be installed into any vehicle coupled with a mobile application running on one of the passengers’ smartphones. Henceforth referred to as the ‘Black Box’, the device detects accidents under various scenarios, such as a head-on collision, or toppling of the vehicle. In case an accident is detected, an alert SMS is automatically sent to the nearest EMS through the custom developed mobile application, with the coordinates of the site. An abort function has also been incorporated for cases of false-positive decisions. © 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.