Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Police in Taiwan have had it with Pokemon Go

Published Aug 11th, 2016 3:05PM EDT
Pokemon Go Traffic Violations
Image: Jacob Siegal | BGR

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

Pokemon Go

might be a worldwide phenomenon, but not everybody loves it. In fact, on Thursday, Reuters reported that traffic violations in Taiwan have spiked since the game launched in the country last weekend. In just a few short days, Taiwan police have issued over 1,200 tickets for smartphone use while driving.

DON’T MISS: How to fix the bug in the latest Pokemon Go update that’s driving players insane

“The whole country is using their smart phones like crazy playing this internet game,” said Yen San-lung, the Taiwan police department’s head of law enforcement in the traffic division.

According to the media, car drivers are being fined NTD 3,000 ($95) while scooter riders are receiving NTD 1,000 ($32) tickets.

“When driving, it’s easy to be distracted when using your mobile phone and this causes accidents. So the police will enhance efforts to fine drivers who use their mobile phones,” Yen said.

Niantic has done its best to warn Pokemon Go players not to drive and catch ’em all simultaneously, even going so far as to add a notification about driving that appears every time you turn on the game, as well as a warning that appears when the game detects that you are traveling above a certain speed.

Beyond putting the lives of Taiwanese drivers at risk, Pokemon Go is also ruining social outings. One woman was frustrated that her partner seemed to be more interesting in catching Pokemon than paying attention at the Taipei Zoo:

“I’m very dissatisfied because from the moment we entered he started to take out his phone and play. Play, play, play non-stop,” Chen Ting-ju said.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.