By Stelios Pappas [1]
BELLEVILLE – Pokémon Go [2] may be extremely popular, but players may be using the app in dangerous ways.
OPP has drawn attention [3] to the problem of people playing while driving. Police are asking the public to be safe and not use their devices in the car.
The app has brought up safety concerns because of players using it while biking [4] and driving [5]. There have been incidents of players being injured or mugged because of inattention to their surroundings.
QNetNews [6] took to social media to ask people about their experiences with the app. Several individuals got in touch and explained what they have seen, including Nikhil Boga, 21, a University of Texas student taking pre-med biology.
“I’ve personally never used it in the car as a driver or a passenger on my campus. We used to have a lot of people play because there are almost 10 pokéstops but ever since the patch notes that made the game worse, it died down and I don’t really see a lot of people playing it at the moment.”
Patching is an update that can add, remove and change features. This change removed the actual tracking aspect — steps visible on your screen — in Pokémon GO by which players could tell how far about specific monsters were.
[7]A look at what Pokémon GO steps used to look like.
Taken from Google Image.
Pokéstops are real-life locations that show up as part of the game. Players then can acquire items to catch monsters or hatch them.
For Boga, playing the game was a community experience and a unique way to spend his time.
“I would play the game either when I hang out with my friends or when I go out for jogs around my neighbourhoods. The concept of the egg hatching was a pretty neat way for people to go out and exercise.”
In Pokémon Go, eggs contain creatures and players need to travel either two, five or 10 kilometres to hatch them.
[8]Pokémon Go egg screen. Screenshot by QNetNews reporter Justin Medve
“What some players were doing was going into their cars and driving around thinking the eggs were going to hatch. But they (the eggs) wouldn’t. Instead, they were paying more attention to the game then the road.”
One thing the game does not tell its players is that it has speed tracking in place. Players cannot go faster than 10 kilometres or else the game does not track the distance.
“In terms of injury, a couple of my friends would trip over something because they weren’t watching where they were going, and I witnessed a car accident where someone actually was playing GO while driving, which was really frustrating to see that people would go such lengths for a game.”
An example of a car crash as a result of playing Pokéman GO [9]
Cole Armitage, 23, a Trent University undergraduate taking media studies is currently in Japan for his fifth year. He told QNet about how students play there.
“I find it really difficult to see into people’s cars as they’re playing. Biking and playing might be an issue, but so far the only offenders are us international students. At a casual pace, the game will still register distance for eggs if you’re on a bike, so you usually just want to pull it out to check if it’s still on. But looking at your phone while on a bike is technically illegal in Japan.”
Ontario does not have laws for looking at your phone while biking. But we do have them for driving. Bill 118, Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act [10], was introduced in 2009.
In Part Six of the legislation, it states.
“78.1 (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device or other prescribed device that is capable of receiving or transmitting telephone communications, electronic data, mail or text messages.”
Drivers can be fined $100o, if caught using their phones.
The OPP is asking passengers to do more to prevent accidents caused by distracted driving. Through mid-August, the OPP had investigated 38 road deaths so far this year caused by inattentive drivers. This is compared to the 19 deaths caused by intoxication. That’s double the number.
“Don’t be a passenger of a distracted driver,” said OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair in a press release.
“Recognize that they are endangering your life. Speak up and insist that they focus on the road and on safe driving. By not doing so, you are contributing to the problem. Since 2009, our officers have investigated more than 600 road deaths that involved an inattentive driver. Consider how many of those innocent lives could have been saved had someone else in the vehicle intervened.”
Pokéman GO was released in July, and Canadians officially got their hands on it a week later.