Pokemon No…..More Accidents

If you haven’t heard of the nation’s newest addiction to Pokemon Go you must live under a rock. It seems this new craze is everywhere, even the New York Times wrote an article about it. Pokemon (from the 90’s), has made a Revenge of the Nerds style comeback and is infiltrating our world. Essentially, Pokemon Go is an app that you download on your phone and when you open it and point your phone at the world around you little creatures pop up on your screen and you are supposed to ‘catch’ them. Users are forced to keep their eyes glued to their screen (regardless of what they are doing) in case a Pokemon pops up to catch. It is a weird hybrid between real life and avatar world.

According to People magazine, “users of the wildly popular app are reportedly tripping, falling and getting sunburned while tracking down the virtual creatures. Less cautious players are also putting themselves at risk of car accidents as they attempt to throw Pokéballs at Pikachu while driving around.” There has even been an admission by one user that he has been skateboarding around while keeping his eyes on his screen so he doesn’t miss his chance to “catch ‘em all”.

We wrote about distracted driving in our blogs before and although we aren’t users of the game, we feel confident that playing Pokemon Go while driving falls within the realm of being distracted.

As accident attorneys we hope that while you are on your quest to catch Pokemons you stay safe. But if you do trip, fall or hurt yourself while chasing Pikachu call us.

Honest Advice. It’s What We Do. Larry R. Williams, PLLC.