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Police Say Pokemon Go Was Not The Cause Of I-40 Crash That Killed Trucker

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Knoxville police say that there is no substance to the viral Facebook post that claims that the motorist involved in the wrong way crash that killed a truck driver was playing Pokemon Go.

Wrong Way Driver Causes Fatal Crash In Knoxville

The crash happened around 1 a.m. on Wednesday. According to reports, 21 year old Anthony Swartz drove the wrong way on I-40 through downtown Knoxville, before crashing head on into a truck driven by 67 year old Trent Carroll.

Viral Facebook Post Claims Pokemon Go Is To Blame

A Facebook post from Carroll’s daughter claims that Swartz was playing Pokemon Go at the time of the crash.

Police Find No Indication That Wrong Way Driver Was Playing Pokemon Go

The Facebook post has gone viral, but local authorities say that the claim is not justified.

According to WVLT, Knoxville police say that Swartz “does not appear to have been playing a video game at the time of the crash.

Additionally, Snopes discredits the report:

“Police have yet to find any link between the crash and Pokemon Go, and the stretch of interstate in question has been the site of a number of wrong way crashes in recent years. Had investigators deemed Swartz to be playing Pokemon Go at the time of the crash, there’s no reason to believe they would not inform the public and issue an attendant warning. But police cited the “density of interchanges along that stretch of I-40” as a “possible factor common among the crashes … [as] numerous exits and on-ramps offer more opportunities for an impaired or confused driver ” to begin heading the wrong way on the interstate late at night.”

Snopes also reports that a spokesman from the Knoxville Police Department believes that the confusion stems from the juxtaposition of two unrelated news stories reported by the Knoxville News Sentinel: “DeBusk, who said he was inundated with calls from local and national media seeking a response to the daughter’s claim, speculated the confusion might have been caused by a News Sentinel video interview with DeBusk posted online. The video was immediately followed by a separate, unrelated news clip about a driver in Baltimore who struck a parked police cruiser while playing Pokemon.

Sources:
Local 8 Now
Snopes

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