Tokyo, Oct 31 — The parents of a Japanese boy who was killed in a road accident caused by a driver who was busy playing Pokemon GO have urged for measures to stop the use of the gaming app while driving, says a report in Japanese daily Asahi Monday.

Nine-year-old Keita Noritake was killed last Wednesday after he was run over by a truck whose driver was distracted by the smartphone game Pokemon GO, making him the third fatality in Japan due to a road accident linked to the app.

The driver, a 36-year-old man, is now awaiting prosecution for causing death by negligence while driving.

In an interview with the Japanese daily, the dead boy’s parents made a public appeal for “measures to be taken so that the app cannot be used at all while driving to avoid any more deaths.”

Noritake is the first minor killed in a Pokémon GO-linked road mishap in the country since the app was launched there in July; previous victims include two women, aged 72 and 29 years, respectively.

Meanwhile, the ruling in the first of these cases was announced Monday in the Tokushima (west) district court, and where the responsible driver was sentenced to 14 months in jail.

Keiji Goo, 39, was declared guilty of causing death by negligence for playing the augmented reality game while driving his van, after he killed a woman and seriously injured another.

Amid the craze for the smartphone game and several accidents sparked by its use in other countries, Japanese authorities issued a list of safety recommendations for users playing the game, including not playing it in dangerous areas or while carrying out risky tasks. EFE