Fun game goes WRONG! Japanese truck driver playing Pokemon Go kills pedestrian
A Japanese truck driver playing Pokemon Go while driving hit two women, killing one and injuring the other, in Japan’s first departure related to the Nintendo Co craze.
The motorist said he was deflected by the game after his arrest for negligent driving following the injury on
Wednesday evening, a spokesman for the Tokushima prefectural police said.
“The driver is still in detention. No selection was made yet on whether to proceed with a prosecution,” he included
A spokesman for Niantic Inc, which developed Pokemon GO collectively with Nintendo affiliate Pokemon Company, said the company had added a pop-up to the Pokemon Go display when it found a growth in speed asking for verification the user wasn’t driving.
He did not say whether the programmer would take additional measures to safeguard against injuries.
A spokesman for Nintendo offered condolences to the family of the dead woman.
“Pokemon Company and Niantic strive to create an environment where individuals can play the game safely and we shall continue to do that,” he added when asked whether the business would take any new measures to guard against accidents.
The popularity of augmented-reality Pokemon Go around the world has created crowds of people in other public places and parks as user search for creatures, but has been blamed for harms and robberies of users that were distracted.
Signs at parks and other places in Japan have asked users to avoid creating a nuisance.
Pokemon episodes elsewhere have spurned warnings to play responsibly.
In Taipei monster hunters caused a stampede in Taiwan on Sunday Pokemon Go blocking streets in the capital. Authorities there have raised fines on scooter riders discovered playing the game in traffic.
News reports in July asserted a Guatemalan adolescent was the first Pokemon fatality after he was shot breaking into a house.
Additionally in July, Pokemon Go players were robbed of their smartphones at gunpoint in a north London park in Britain, while four teens in Missouri in the U.S. used the game to target around a dozen people into armed robberies.
