The Pokémon GO phenomenon has mostly faded, but the destruction left in its wake could be far larger than anyone imagined. Two professors from Perdue University have attempted to get an idea of the game’s effect on traffic accidents by studying data from one county in Indiana. The results don’t reflect well on Pikachu and friends.
It’s probably unfair to solely blame a free mobile game for an increase in traffic accidents, as users who decided to play an immersive augmented reality game while driving are obviously at fault. But the “Death by Pokémon Go” study from Mara Faccio and John J. McConnell is less about finding an app store bogeyman, and more about gathering specific data related to the rising number of traffic accidents that are believed to be related to “distracted driving.” Beginning in 1988, traffic fatalities seemed to be going down in the US pretty steadily. According statistics from the National Highway Traffic Society Administration (NHTSA), American traffic fatalities numbered 42,130 in 1988, and fell to 29,867 by 2011. Then fatalities and overall crash numbers began to rise again.
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