You don't have to be far away to be isolated and on your own when things go bad.
This hiker was only a short distance from a trail.

Think for a moment about some of our senior citizens. There are a few I know that would be unable to get up if they fell, and unless they had a telephone in reach they could be stranded helplessly inside their own apartments.
In some cases it might be months before anybody bothered to check on them.