A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention

by Matt Richtel

Overview

From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Matt Richtel, a brilliant, narrative-driven exploration of technology’s vast influence on the human mind and society, dramatically-told through the lens of a tragic “texting-while-driving” car crash that claimed the lives of two rocket scientists in 2006.

In this ambitious, compelling, and beautifully written book, Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, examines the impact of technology on our lives through the story of Utah college student Reggie Shaw, who killed two scientists while texting and driving. Richtel follows Reggie through the tragedy, the police investigation, his prosecution, and ultimately, his redemption.

In the wake of his experience, Reggie has become a leading advocate against “distracted driving.” Richtel interweaves Reggie’s story with cutting-edge scientific findings regarding human attention and the impact of technology on our brains, proposing solid, practical, and actionable solutions to help manage this crisis individually and as a society.

A propulsive read filled with fascinating, accessible detail, riveting narrative tension, and emotional depth, A Deadly Wandering explores one of the biggest questions of our time—what is all of our technology doing to us?—and provides unsettling and important answers and information we all need.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062284068
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/23/2014
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Matt Richtel is a reporter at the New York Times. He received the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of articles about distracted driving that he expanded into his first nonfiction book, A Deadly Wandering, a New York Times bestseller. His second nonfiction book, An Elegant Defense, on the human immune system, was a national bestseller and chosen by Bill Gates for his annual Summer Reading List. Richtel has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, CBS This Morning, PBS NewsHour, and other major media outlets. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part I Collision

Chapter 1 Reggie 11

Chapter 2 The Toll 21

Chapter 3 The Neuroscientists 30

Chapter 4 Reggie 36

Chapter 5 Terryl 49

Chapter 6 The Toll 55

Chapter 7 The Neuroscientists 60

Chapter 8 Terryl 72

Chapter 9 Reggie 81

Chapter 10 Reggie 90

Chapter 11 The Neuroscientists 98

Chapter 12 Reggie 110

Chapter 13 Hunt for Justice 115

Chapter 14 The Neuroscientists 119

Chapter 15 Terryl 129

Part II Reckoning

Chapter 16 The Neuroscientists 139

Chapter 17 Terryl 147

Chapter 18 Hunt for Justice 155

Chapter 19 Reggie 158

Chapter 20 The Neuroscientists 165

Chapter 21 Terryl 172

Chapter 22 Hunt for Justice 179

Chapter 23 The Lawmakers 189

Chapter 24 The Neuroscientists 192

Chapter 25 Reggie 200

Chapter 26 Terryl 206

Chapter 27 The Neuroscientists 214

Chapter 28 Hunt for Justice 223

Chapter 29 Reggie 235

Chapter 30 Hunt for Justice 240

Chapter 31 Hunt for Justice 248

Chapter 32 Hunt for Justice 251

Chapter 33 Terryl 256

Chapter 34 Reggie 262

Chapter 35 Hunt for Justice 269

Part III Redemption

Chapter 36 Hunt for Justice 281

Chapter 37 Reggie 287

Chapter 38 Hunt for Justice 289

Chapter 39 The Lawmakers 295

Chapter 40 The Lawmakers 300

Chapter 41 Justice 306

Chapter 42 The Lawmakers 317

Chapter 43 Justice 319

Chapter 44 Reggie 321

Chapter 45 Redemption 334

Chapter 46 Reggie's Brain 334

Chapter 47 Terryl 340

Chapter 48 Redemption 345

Chapter 49 The Neuroscientists 356

Chapter 50 Reggie 362

Epilogue 369

Author's Note 378

Acknowledgments 388

Index 391

Editorial Reviews

…Richtel gives Shaw's story the thorough, emotional treatment it is due, interweaving a detailed chronicle of the science behind distracted driving. As an instructive social parable, Richtel's densely reported…compassionate and persuasive book deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America's high school curriculums. To say it may save lives is self-evident…Richtel displays admirable empathy for everyone involved but reserves a special place in his heart for Reggie—impassive and forlorn, monosyllabic but tortured, evasive yet sincere. Shaw's conversion is depicted with revelatory precision, his epiphany realistically subdued and painstakingly gradual.

The New York Times Book Review - Robert Kolker

07/28/2014
A deadly driving-while-texting car crash illuminates the perils of information overload in this scattershot saga of digital dysfunctions. New York Times reporter and novelist Richtel (The Cloud) recounts the story of Reggie Shaw, a 19-year-old Utah man who in 2006 swerved into oncoming traffic while texting his girlfriend; the resulting accident killed two other men. Part of the book is a lucid, interesting account of the developing brain science of how we focus our attention and how it is distracted by the addictive flood of information from our always connected wireless devices and our insistently multitasked jobs. (Researchers tell the author that texting impairs ones driving as much as being drunk.) Interspersed is a drawn-out journalistic account of the accident’s aftermath, with grieving families, legal proceedings that explore the growth of jurisprudence on driving and cell phones, and Reggie’s guilt and subsequent rebirth as an anti-texting crusader. The author’s determination to juice up the science with human interest, emotional anguish, and courtroom drama feels overdone—many figures in the book have their back stories ransacked for extraneous episodes of trauma and abuse. Still, when Richtel lets the research speak for itself, he raises fascinating and troubling issues about the cognitive impact of our technology. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A portrait of our digital age that will deeply frighten you and cause you to reevaluate many common aspects of your ‘connected’ life. ... An extraordinarily important book that everyone—and I mean everyone—should read.

Douglas Preston

A Deadly Wandering is more than a page-turner. It’s a book that can save lives.

Nicholas Carr

Matt Richtel’s riveting book is narrative nonfiction at its finest. ... This book should be placed in every school and legislative chamber in the country.

Jon Huntsman

This book does that most amazing of feats: it makes cutting-edge scientific research feel relevant to the choices we make every time we get in a car, sit at a desk, or talk to our friends and family.

Charles Duhigg

A masterpiece of reporting, insight, and empathy. ... A beautiful, cautionary tale that reads like a novel, and that we disregard at our risk.

Robert Kurson

Intensely gripping, compelling, and sobering... A Deadly Wandering gives the potentially lethal risks of the digital age a very human face — one which we can, if we’re honest, readily see in the mirror.

Winnipeg Free Press (A Best Book of the Year)

"Fabulously well-researched and brilliantly told. ... Moving and interesting."

Paula Poundstone

★ 2014-07-01
A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter explores with nearly Javert-ian persistenceone of the early cases of traffic fatalities caused by texting while driving.On Sept. 22, 2006, college student Reggie Shaw, texting inhis truck, veered into the oncoming lane on a narrow highway near Logan, Utah,and struck a car, knocking it into an approaching truck. Both men inside thatcar were rocket scientists with families, and both died. Richtel (Devil's Plaything, 2011, etc.) beginshis account with an MRI of Shaw's brain (he returns to this scene near theend), then reports the crash in detail, following the story to its most recentlegal and emotional conclusions (insofar as there can be conclusions). Healternates his focus throughout: from Shaw and his family, to the victims'families, to the police and legal system, to the legislators consideringtexting laws, to the latest scientific research on how much we can possiblyattend to in our incredibly distracting world (not nearly as much as we think).Readers will be alarmed to discover what science has learned about the dangersdrivers create when they text or talk on the phone. The vast majority of us arejust not capable of doing so safely. Richtel excels at bringing to life hiscast of sundry characters. (Virtually everyone agreed to interviews.) Readersget to know Shaw's parents, the widows, the daughters of the victims, theattorneys on both sides, a judge who keeps LesMisérablesnear at hand (and required Shaw to read it), a victims rights advocate,scientists and, of course, Shaw himself, who emerges as a modest young man (adevout Mormon), a young man who'd never before been in trouble, a young manwho, we eventually realize, could be any one of us.Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highlyemotional and profoundly important story.

Kirkus Reviews

Richtel’s compassionate and persuasive book deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America’s high school curriculums. To say it may save lives is self-evident.” — New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

“Keen and elegantly raw. ... Not just a morality tale but a probe sent into the world of technology. ... Richtel draws all the characters with a fine brush, a delicacy that treats misery both respectfully and front-on.” — Christian Science Monitor (One of the 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year)

“Americans are addicted to their technology, putting us on a modern day collision course with very real consequences. Matt Richtel brilliantly tells the story of the aftermath of a deadly distracted driving crash. His portrait is riveting. I could not stop reading, and neither will you.” — Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation

“A portrait of our digital age that will deeply frighten you and cause you to reevaluate many common aspects of your ‘connected’ life. ... An extraordinarily important book that everyone—and I mean everyone—should read.” — Douglas Preston, co-author of The Monster of Florence

“A masterpiece of reporting, insight, and empathy. ... A beautiful, cautionary tale that reads like a novel, and that we disregard at our risk.” — Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers

“A Deadly Wandering is more than a page-turner. It’s a book that can save lives.” — Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows

“Matt Richtel’s riveting book is narrative nonfiction at its finest. ... This book should be placed in every school and legislative chamber in the country.” — Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah

“This book does that most amazing of feats: it makes cutting-edge scientific research feel relevant to the choices we make every time we get in a car, sit at a desk, or talk to our friends and family.” — Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

“A gripping book. ... This is human drama and the latest knowledge about obsessive technology woven together in memorable style.” — Ralph Nader, author of Unsafe at Any Speed

“A compelling, highly emotional, and profoundly important story.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred; a Best Book of the Year)

“Illuminates the perils of information overload... Raises fascinating and troubling issues about the cognitive impact of our technology.” — Publishers Weekly

Intensely gripping, compelling, and sobering... A Deadly Wandering gives the potentially lethal risks of the digital age a very human face — one which we can, if we’re honest, readily see in the mirror.” — Winnipeg Free Press (A Best Book of the Year)

“Exhaustively researched. ... Richtel brings a novelist’s knack for unspooling narrative conflict to bear on Shaw’s real-life drama.” — San Francisco Chronicle (A Best Book of the Year)

“Each page is... irresistible. ... A richly detailed and compellingly readable exploration of the ‘clash’ between our brains and the electronic devices that, for many of us, have become essential to ‘every facet of life.’” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Fabulously well-researched and brilliantly told. ... Moving and interesting." — Paula Poundstone

From the Publisher

Keen and elegantly raw. ... Not just a morality tale but a probe sent into the world of technology. ... Richtel draws all the characters with a fine brush, a delicacy that treats misery both respectfully and front-on.

Christian Science Monitor (One of the 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year)

Americans are addicted to their technology, putting us on a modern day collision course with very real consequences. Matt Richtel brilliantly tells the story of the aftermath of a deadly distracted driving crash. His portrait is riveting. I could not stop reading, and neither will you.

Ray LaHood

A gripping book. ... This is human drama and the latest knowledge about obsessive technology woven together in memorable style.

Ralph Nader

Richtel’s compassionate and persuasive book deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America’s high school curriculums. To say it may save lives is self-evident.

New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

Each page is... irresistible. ... A richly detailed and compellingly readable exploration of the ‘clash’ between our brains and the electronic devices that, for many of us, have become essential to ‘every facet of life.’

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Exhaustively researched. ... Richtel brings a novelist’s knack for unspooling narrative conflict to bear on Shaw’s real-life drama.

San Francisco Chronicle (A Best Book of the Year)

Exhaustively researched. ... Richtel brings a novelist’s knack for unspooling narrative conflict to bear on Shaw’s real-life drama.

San Francisco Chronicle

Intensely gripping, compelling, and sobering... A Deadly Wandering gives the potentially lethal risks of the digital age a very human face — one which we can, if we’re honest, readily see in the mirror.

Winnipeg Free Press

Richtel’s compassionate and persuasive book deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America’s high school curriculums. To say it may save lives is self-evident.

New York Times Book Review

Keen and elegantly raw. ... Not just a morality tale but a probe sent into the world of technology. ... Richtel draws all the characters with a fine brush, a delicacy that treats misery both respectfully and front-on.

Christian Science Monitor