When Pokemon Go launched in the West, it was the cause of a significant amount of questionable behavior and general mayhem. Thankfully, however, few people were seriously hurt. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of people in Japan. Yesterday we reported that an elderly woman was killed after a farmer playing Pokemon Go accidentally drove into her, and now we have a second fatality to report in as many days.
According to Japanese news sources, a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman was struck while riding her bicycle by somebody playing Pokemon Go and driving. The accident happened earlier this month, but the woman died from her injuries on Thursday. The 26-year-old man who hit her explained how the incident happened:
“Just before, I had been playing Pokemon Go, and I was going to charge my phone, and when I looked away, that’s when it happened.”
The most recent Pokemon Go updates have added explicit warnings about playing while driving and made Pokemon harder to find if you’re not on foot, but developer Niantic may have to take things even further. Pokemon Go tracks how fast you’re moving, so perhaps Niantic should shut the game down if somebody is moving faster than a reasonable walking speed. Yes, it’s a bit heavy-handed, but as we’ve seen over the past couple of days, lives are legitimately on the line.