Pokemon GO is not even officially out yet in Canada, but the country has its first game related accident after a Quebec man crashed into a cop car.
Canada just had its first accident linked to Pokemon GO, as a man in Quebec crashed his car while on the hunt for the creatures. Even worse, he hit a police car, sending both officers to the hospital.
The man and his Pokemon hunting partner were exploring a parking lot, and because they were not paying attention, they hit another car that just so happened to be a police vehicle.
This prompted the provincial service responsible for handing out drivers licences and public auto insurance, the SAAQ, to tweet out a warning that they probably never thought they would need to. Catching a Pokemon is not worth hurting another human.
Il n'y a pas un Pokémon qui mérite de mettre sa vie et celles des autres en dangers. https://t.co/oWdH7X8HSI
— SAAQ (@SAAQ) July 13, 2016
Canada has accomplished an interesting feat, where the first Pokemon GO-related accident took place before the game had even been officially released in the country. Despite not being able to download the game from the Canadian Google Play and App Store, Canadians have found ways around those restrictions.
Android users are downloading the game using APKs to make it appear like they are in the U.S., and iOS users are simply setting up American iTunes accounts so they can download the game. Both of these options mean that the game is already pretty widespread, making the probability of something going badly for players higher than you might imagine.
Sadly, this accident in Quebec is most likely just the first incident, especially once the game is released north of the border, which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later seeing as Pokemon Go is now live in Germany and the UK in addition to Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.
H/T MTL Blog
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