Pokémon Go isn’t the only app that may cause fatal car crashes

Pokémon Go isn’t the only app that may cause fatal car crashes

6 years ago
Anonymous $ZOEEBQ1zf0

https://www.newscientist.com/article/pokemon-go-isnt-app-may-cause-fatal-car-crashes/

These figures come from extrapolating the effects of Pokémon Go on Tippecanoe county in Indiana to the whole of the US, so should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, even in this locale, there was a substantial increase in traffic accidents following the game’s launch. The researchers say they were able to attribute 134 crashes, two of them fatal, across the county to Pokémon Go between July and November 2016, out of a total of 286.

“We used the most conservative assumptions that were supported by the data. We are quite confident of the extrapolation and, if anything, we are understating the effect,” says Mara Faccio at Purdue University, who carried out the study with colleague John McConnell, also at Purdue.