Jul19

“Pokemon Go” Should Be “Pokemon Went”; A New Menace for Distracted Driving

Our car accident lawyers look into Pokemon Go and the dangers of distracted driving.

It seems that the more technology evolves common sense seems to disappear.  The latest example of this is a game that debuted on July 6, 2016.  The game is called “Pokemon Go”.  The object of the game is to capture these mythical creatures that are placed in various places within the city; this could be the median; it could be in the middle of a store.  The Pokemon Go uses actual GPS coordinates.  The object, of course, is to capture these little virtual Pokemon images to get points.

This has reached a new low, or high, depending on how you want to call it, in distracted driving.  In theory the game is not supposed to work while driving, but it is connected to one’s cell phone and, thereby, it can be utilized behind the wheel.

Driving while playing Pokemon Go
Distracted driving has been a major contributor to motor vehicle accidents.  In Florida, last year more than 200 motor vehicle fatalities and 39,000 injuries were caused by distracted driving.  The problem has grown so large that distracted driving crashes account for 12.2% of all crashes throughout the state.  This is according to the Department of Florida Highway Safety.

Chiumento Law, PLLC has been actively involved in the campaign against distracted driving, primarily with texting and driving.  This has been done in cooperation with law enforcement and the local school districts.  This new phenomenon presents an extremely more dangerous type of distracted driving.  Recently, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota suggested this may be cause for federal investigation because of the danger is presents.

There have been reports not only of the obvious problems behind the wheel, but people have walked into objects while playing this game and there have been reports of children trying to run across intersections trying to obtain the Pokemon.  Recently in Palm Coast a homeowner, at 1:30 in the morning, heard a noise outside and opened fire on what he believed to be two intruders, but who in fact were two teenagers searching for the Pokemon.

The purpose of these comments is to present a fair warning to the public that this should really be looked at.  How do we do that?  The same criteria for distracted driving while texting should be utilized here.  People should be more actively involved because of this situation.  Time for common sense.  If you get behind the wheel of a car, put the phone down.  I have been involved with personal injury cases in one form or another since 1975, but I must say this is possibly the worst traffic hazard I have seen.

PERHAPS A NEW SLOGAN: “ARRIVE ALIVE, DON’T POKEMON GO AND DRIVE”

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