Safety Concerns Growing For 'Pokemon Go' Players

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FORT WORTH/DENTON (CBSDFW.COM) - When we stopped Adrian Casillas at Panther Island Pavilion as he marched in hesitant, random order around the park, we asked him if we could ask him a question on camera.

"If its about Pokemon Go, hell yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "For sure! Absolutely!"

We asked the ardent Pokémon Go player what the pros and cons are of walking around playing a fantasy game on a phone in a real world environment.

"I mean it's absolutely crazy," he replied. "It's getting kids out of the house getting everyone more involved in the community. It's also bad because you can play while you're driving and it's a huge distraction too and it does take away from real life."

Although players are having fun at different locations, there are some places that players are asked to stay away from.

"This is the high traffic area between where the helicopter lands and where the emergency patient come in," said Denton Regional Medical Center spokesperson Dana Benton Long as she pointed to an area between the hospital's helicopter parked on a helipad and the entrance to the emergency room.

The critical care area is for trauma cases and medical staff only. Problem is: it was tagged in the game as a very important meeting location for gamers who want to try out their Pokemon in battle.

"There have been a lot of people coming in checking out the helipad," Long said. "Checking out the ER. Wandering around with their heads down looking at their phones."

The hospital asked the game company to move the meeting place from its helipad.

But more businesses will have to learn how to cope with this type of phone user as people now spend more time with Pokemon Go than on Facebook.

"I don't have to get on there, I don't have to be able to read anything," said Pokemon Go gamer Mary Maloy contrasting the two apps. "You know I use Facebook to talk about this because there are groups to talk about where people are going and stuff like that."

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