Hooniverse PSA: Please Put the Pokemon Down When you Drive. Please?


Look, this isn’t what I thought I would ever have to be telling all of you out there, but please, for the love of god, can you put the phone down? There will be plenty of time to catch these fun little critters when you aren’t driving!
Apparently the in-game warning isn’t enough for some of you, so let’s use the cautionary tale that has come into the news the past couple of days, and look at the serious crash of a 28 year old Auburn man who hit a tree dead on after refusing to put down his game. Look at that damage and tell me you think catching a shitty snorlax is going to be worth all of that damage. Right? I didn’t think so.
And because I’m on a role, let’s try to keep the phone always away when we are driving? Distracted driving is the number one menace here in Austin, and I know there must be those of you who think it’s harmless. Well, it is until it isn’t, and I don’t want to read about how more people have gotten hurt or killed thanks to some jackass with a smartphone. So, put the Pokemon down, and put your phone away. It’s for the betterment of driving.

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  1. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    I don’t understand why there isn’t a 5 mph speed limit for the game to work. It’s GPS based for hatchoo’s sake!

    1. LeaksOil Avatar
      LeaksOil

      Because “wah wah wah I can’t play when I’m riding in a car wah wah” ?

    2. BrotherFlounder Avatar

      Trains and buses, maybe? There is a speed limit on hatching eggs that you collect during the game (you walk to hatch them) – that’s about 5 mph.

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Ok, that would make sense, yes. But no more so than kids having to accept that trains and buses are not a playing field. I just feel that the gamble being taken here is quite big: Apparently, some people are really good at scouting stupid ways to die.

  2. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    I have the perfect solution to this – use your phone as your speedometer.

  3. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Around here people have been complaining about their Uber and Lyft drivers playing Pokemon Go while driving them from place to place. That’s a paddlin’
    I’m with Sjalabais, anything above jogging speed should freeze the gameplay.

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      That really takes the distracted taxi driver theme to a new level.

  4. Tanshanomi Avatar

    I am really hoping this quickly becomes the catalyst for real distracted driving legislation with teeth, and more importantly some grassroots culture shifting, similar to what MADD did to change public acceptance/apathy toward drunk driving.

  5. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    I can’t agree too much. Friends lost their son – best loved, high achieving kid in school – when some texting nimrod blew through a stop sign and hit their car. Tore the family apart, and created widespread grief. Pretty sure it gave the moron driver a big sad and wrecked his day, too.

  6. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    So, people old enough to drive are playing this game, or are 10-year-olds stealing the family car?

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      Oh, Niantic deliberately used the first generation Pokemon (I have no idea what that means, heard it on the public radio) to bring in the 25 year old crowd that grew up on it. People old enough to DRINK and drive are playing this.

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        I was once in the passenger seat to a cook at a high mountain cabin I worked at. She ate a banana while driving, which was a grey area, I guess. Then someone called. Her immediate reaction was to tell me to hold the steering wheel, and she took the call. It was the last time I drove with her. The summer after she rolled her car with three employees in it. The potential for idiotic behaviour is bottomless.

      2. salguod Avatar

        My 17, 19 and 21 year olds play it.

    2. LeaksOil Avatar
      LeaksOil

      Driver is/was 28 years old. It’s in the article ,…ridiculous!

  7. LeaksOil Avatar
    LeaksOil

    28 year old?! Good greif. I’m 29 and grew up playing Pokemon yellow on a Gameboy (color I think it was? Got in a bundle at Costco , I remember getting it well). I don’t play this mess on my iPhone. I don’t play any games on it,…
    I don’t claim my own generation: ugh.