It has finally happened. Researchers have connected distracted driving and Pokémon Go, the popular augmented reality app where people are encouraged to collect hundreds of Pokémon.
According to San Diego State University (SDSU) researchers, Pokémon Go is responsible for 10,000 reports of distracted driving every day. Researchers used data gathered from Twitter, in which Pokémon Go users detail their quest to “catch them all.” The report was published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Although the act of driving and playing an augmented reality game is terrifying to contemplate, some of the Twitter updates gathered for the study are a bit humorous. The Los Angeles Times published an article giving a few examples. One user posted the status update, “My mom just legit stopped the car in the middle of the road to catch a Pokémon.”
SDSU researchers combed through 350,000 tweets, looking for specific keywords like “Pokémon Go”, “driving” and “car”. After selecting the keywords, researchers isolated 10,000 tweets involving reports of distracted driving and Pokémon Go.
Why You Should Care About Distracted Driving and Pokémon Go
Distracted driving has become a major cause of car and pedestrian accidents. Statistics collected by the federal government show that there were an estimated 431,000 injuries caused by distracted driving nationwide in 2014. In 2015, there 15,574 car accidents caused by distracted driving throughout Colorado, 68 of which were fatal.
What makes this JAMA Internal Medicine report scary is that as an augmented reality game, Pokémon Go requires significantly more attention than other apps. Video games are not worth the consequences of being involved in a car accident. If you are going to play any smart phone game, please make sure you don’t do it while driving.