Major Highway Accident after Man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu: Hoax

Story:

Pokemon Go: Major Highway Accident after Man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu!

Analysis:

The story widely shared online comes to show a major highway accident in picture that supposedly happened after a man playing the reality mobile game Pokémon Go stopped driving in middle of the highway to catch Pikachu! Thankfully, the incident described for the highway accident picture is not a fact.

Picture about Major Highway Accident after Man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu — Major Highway Accident after Man Stops in Middle of Highway to Catch Pikachu

About the Highway Accident Picture

The picture in question actually shows a giant pileup on north bound Interstate 25 as a band of heavy snow moved through Denver, Colorado back on 1st March 2014.

Origin of Story

The major highway accident story attached to the picture originated from an early July 2016 article on CartelPress website cartelpress.com that came with the same title as story. The article mentioned a 26 year-old Lamar Hickson accused of causing one of the worst highway accidents after stopping in the middle of the highway to catch a Pikachu. It is said that the man was playing the newly released Pokemon app game know as “Pokemon Go” while driving. Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, GPS based augmented reality mobile game that allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual Pokemon who appears throughout the real world. The website CartelPress, however, has been publishing many satirical, hoax stories like ‘Zoo Claims Gorilla Had Ties To ISIS,’ and as described in their terms and conditions, it is a satirical website owned by Huzlers.com. So the story that a man playing Pokémon Go caused a major highway accident after he stopped in the middle of the highway to catch Pikachu is just a hoax.

Screenshot of related article on CartelPress website

Although the claimed incident did not happen in real, the satirical article mentions a valid point – texting or playing games (especially reality ones) on mobile while driving is never a good idea.