I think we all knew this was inevitable from the day that Pokémon Go was released. Unless you live in the most rural bumblefuck town in America by now you’ve most certainly seen at least a handful of people walking around with their eyes glued to their smartphones, hovering near some sort of a park in an attempt to catch Pokémon. This behavior isn’t particularly dangerous unless it’s in a major metropolitan area and all out stampedes/riots break out like the ones recently in Taiwan and New York City’s Central Park. While the game has been praised for getting some gamers outside and exercising when they’d otherwise be indoors glued to a console Pokémon Go has caused mayhem already. It’s gotten some dude hit with a taser by the police, parents abandoned their 2-year-old baby while catching Pokémon, and residents worldwide have been harassed by unfortunately placed Poké Stops.
NONE OF THAT stacks up to what CNN is reporting:
Japanese police have arrested a driver who they say struck and killed a woman while he was playing Pokemon Go.
The suspect, a 39-year old farmer, was driving a small truck on Tuesday evening when he failed to notice two women crossing the road because he was playing the popular augmented reality game, the police said.
One of the victims, a woman in her early 70s, died of a spinal injury after being hit by the truck. The other woman has been hospitalized with a severe injury.
The police said the driver told them he was not paying attention and had been distracted by Pokemon Go. It was the first case of a death in Japan resulting from someone playing the game, they added.
As noted over on our sister site UPROXX by editor Dan Seitz, ‘distracted driving kills nine people a day’ and it injust a literal shit ton of people daily. Frankly, it’s a miracle that there haven’t been more Pokémon Go-related driving deaths here in the USA. That said, just keep your fucking phone in your goddamn pocket while driving. I don’t care what you do with your own life but you have no right to risk the lives of other drivers on the road or pedestrians all to catch one more Pikachu.