Video Shows Man Crashing into Parked Police Car While Playing Pokemón Go

After crashing into a parked police car, a Baltimore man explained that he had been looking down at his phone and playing Pokemón Go.

Pokemón Go has been the cause of a variety of unexpected problems since it launched several weeks ago, including finding dead bodies, being shot at, and being led off of a cliff. Now we can add a new one to the list: inadvertently slamming into a police cruiser.

Three police officers in Baltimore had just finished a call for service and were standing on the sidewalk when a Toyota RAV4 slammed into their parked patrol car. When the driver got out, he apologized profusely, explaining he had been looking down and playing Pokemón Go when he crashed. The whole incident was captured on the officer's body camera, and the footage was posted to the police department's Twitter account. 

"That's what I get for playing this dumb ass game," the Pokemón-playing driver said.

#PokemonGO is not all fun and games. Here is a video of a distracted driver who struck one of our cars. #PlaySafe pic.twitter.com/kOTfbTcILo

While no officers were in the patrol car at the time of impact and none of the passengers of the Pokemón vehicle were injured, car accidents across the U.S. are being attributed to the game. One New York user had a particularly dangerous crash when he struck a tree while playing the game last week. It may sound like an obvious rule, but police in departments from Detroit to London are reminding drivers not to play the game while driving.

Image released from Baltimore Police Department

The game just launched in Canada and was set to launch in Japan on Wednesday but was postponed after a hack this week. It will next come to more countries in Asia and South America. Let's just hope people can still keep their eyes on the road when it gets there. 

Train responsibily, folks.

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