A Deadly Wandering

by Matt Richtel

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, True Crime, Technology, Book Club, Crime

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2014

About the author

Matt Richtel is a best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times based in San Francisco.
He co-created and formerly wrote the syndicated comic Rudy Park under the pen name Theron Heir. Since 2012, the strip is now written by its longtime illustrator Darrin Bell.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi, welcome. I’m happy to see you are settling in to read this now. But…what?...really?…please…ignore that chirp that just told you a new e-mail arrived. It is probably just another add for Viagra or penile enlargement. It is almost never something critical, so…hey…come back. Son of a bitch. (Taps fingers on desk, plays some solitaire, checks watch) Ah, you’re back. Took long enough. Geez. All right, can we get back to it now? You remember? The book is A Deadly Wandering, a pretty amazing look at attention, the demands on it, how it functions, how it is being compromised, and what the implications are for some aspects of that. Stop, no, do you have to answer the phone now? Can’t it wait? (sighs loudly, checks e-mail on a separate screen; weather.com lets us know upcoming conditions in another tab; who is pitching for the Mets tonight?) Oh, you’re back, sorry. Been there long? I must have wandered off. Focus.

I know a little bit about distraction. My last job entailed constant blasts of it. I worked as a dispatcher for a security company. I had a dozen or more sites checking in every hour to make sure our guards are not sleeping (or that they know how to set the alarms on their cell phones). People call asking for their schedules. People call at 2 in the morning to let us know they will not be showing up for their 6am shift. They call because they just turned the wrong way and the cell phone in their pocket somehow redialed the last number they’d called. They call at 4am to let us know they will not be coming in for their 6am shift. They call asking for direction when there is some event at their site that requires handling. (This does go on for a bit, so rather than inflict on you the horrors of my typical work night, I will leave a full viewing for the intrepid and tuck a chunk of it under a spoiler label)Our clients call, sometimes asking for emergency ASAP coverage in diverse places across the continent, sometimes to add ridiculous increases to the number of guards they want for a morning shift at a large institution. Our security guards call to ask if their check is at the office, or to inquire as to why the totals on their checks did not match what they expected. They call to let us know they have arrived at their post. They call to let us know they have clocked out for the day. They call at 5am to let us know they will not be in for their 6am shift because they have a newly discovered “appointment.” There are many, many calls. It makes it damned tough to keep a log of all the calls, particularly when half a dozen arrive at the exact same moment. It makes it tough to prepare the multiple reports of overnight activity, all of which have to be transmitted during the busiest time of the morning. In the middle of this, the boss comes in, drops papers on my desk and asks when this or that person arrived at or left from a post sometime in the last week or so. For someone who is, shall we say, not comfortable with being interrupted, this presents some challenges. And it presents a real problem. I used to write the bulk of my reviews while at work. And to enter notes, do research on items, and then compose actual reviews of books during this time could be a bit difficult. Thoughts that had not made their way into a file were in constant danger of vanishing into the ether with the next barrage of incomings. I screamed sometimes. I frequently forgot what I was doing before the latest set of calls. And, struggling to remember, I was interrupted yet again by the next set. The one good thing about this blitzkrieg of interruption was that I am not enduring it while behind the wheel of a ton-plus hunk of metal hurtling down the road at 60 mph. My sanity might have been in jeopardy, (or long gone) but I presented no existential threat to the rest of humanity. The same cannot be said for the main character in Richtel’s story.

By all accounts nineteen-year-old Reggie Shaw is a decent young man. A Mormon, he was eager to serve his community by preparing for and then undertaking an LDS mission. His first try had come up short, so he was back home, working until he could build up enough moral credit to try again. In September, 2006, while driving a Chevy Tahoe SUV, Reggie had his Cingular flip-phone with him and was texting with his girlfriend. A witness reported seeing him weaving across the center line multiple times. Finally, Reggie weaved too far. The results were fatal. Reggie came through ok but two scientists were killed as a result of Reggie’s texting, leaving wives and children to pick up the charred pieces of their lives and go on without their breadwinners, husbands, fathers. Reggie denied he was texting when the accident occurred.

Matt Richtel is a novelist and top-notch reporter. He won a Pulitzer for a series of articles, written for the New York Times, in which he detailed the national safety crisis resulting from increasing use of distracting devices by drivers. He has written a few novels and even pens a comic strip. There is nothing at all amusing, however, about the tale he tells here.


Matt Richtel - from his site

The core of A Deadly Wandering is how constant distraction, particularly while in a car, kills. Richtel looks at the case of Reggie Shaw as a prime example of how the distractions that have become embedded in our lives have unintended consequences. Richtel spends time with Reggie, with the cop who pursued the case when most officials wanted to brush it off and move on, the surviving family members, and a victim’s advocate who pursued prosecution of the case. Richtel also talks with several neuroscientists who have been studying the science of attentiveness. That material is quite eye-opening.

There are legal questions in here regarding where responsibility lies for such events, and how far communities are willing to go to punish violations and even to establish that such behavior is not permissible. Where does your freedom to act irresponsibly interfere with my right to stay alive? There are scientific questions about how the brain functions in a world that seems to demand multi-tasking. How does the brain work in dealing with attentiveness? What is possible? What is not? Where are the edges of that envelope?

When drug companies want to bring to market a product for public use, they must go through a significant review process to make sure their product is safe to use. Before auto manufacturers can bring a vehicle to market they must put it through safety testing.

But neither Verizon nor any other cellphone company supports legislation that bans drivers from talking on the phone. And the wireless industry does not conduct research on the dangers, saying that is not its responsibility - From - Dismissing the Risks of a Deadly Habit

And the corporations know what they are doing with their techolology.

If you take yourself back millennia, and you're in the jungle or you're in the forest and you see a lion, then the lion hits your sensory cortices and says to the frontal lobe, whatever you're doing, whatever hut you're building, stop and run.
Well, here's what scientists think is happening in this data era, is that these pings of incoming email, the phone ringing, the buzz in your pocket, is almost like we get little tiny lions, little tiny threats or, let's say, maybe little tiny rabbits that you want to chase and eat, you get little tiny bursts of adrenaline that are bombarding your frontal lobe asking you to make choices. But in some ways these aren't modern bombardments; they're the most primitive bombardments. They're playing to these most primitive impulses and they're asking our brain to make very hard choices, a lot. - from the Terry Gross interview

In addition, and in a chillingly similar impact to other addictive substances, our communications technology knows how to make itself feel crucial to us.

when you check your information, when you get a buzz in your pocket, when you hear a ring - you get a dopamine squirt. You get a little rush of adrenaline. So you're getting that more and more and more and more. Well, guess what happens in its absence? You feel bored. You're actually conditioned by a kind of neurochemical response. - also from the NPR interview

Richtel follows Reggie’s story through to the end, at least for some of the players here. Laws have been changed. New knowledge has been gained. Responsibility has been allocated. Amends have been attempted. It is a moving tale. In addition, you will learn a lot about what science has found about how our brains handle multiple concurrent demands. You will learn about change in how distracted driving is being addressed by our legal system. But most of what you will get from reading this book is a chilling appreciation for what is involved in distracted driving. You might even be persuaded to switch off your phone the next time you get behind the wheel. At least I hope you are. I would like to live a bit longer and not be taken out before my time because someone was talking on the phone with their friend, texting with their significant other, or trying to order penile growth products from the road. I would like to live long enough to spend at least a few more nights screaming at the phone to stop ringing at work so I can get some writing done. That call you were thinking of making while in the car can wait. It really is a matter of life and death. A Deadly Wandering is must read material. Please, please pay attention.


Review first posted – 7/18/14

Publication date – 9/23/14
Trade Paperback - 6/2/15

This review has been cross-posted at Cootsreviews.com

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

A list of Richtel articles in the NY Times’ Bits blog

The Pulitzer site includes links to all the pieces in Richtel’s award-winning series. Very much worth checking out

Another article Richtel did looked at the benefits of uninterrupted face time free of technological intrusion, from August, 2010, Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain

There is some great material in Richtel’s 2010 interview with Terry Gross on NPR, Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets

There are some interesting pieces on Oprah’s site. Distracted Driving: What You Don't See is pretty good. And it is worth checking out Oprah's No Texting Campaign

The US Department of Transportation has a site dedicated to distracted driving. There are some interesting bits of information available there.

October 22, 2015 - Richtel's latest look at distracted driving, a NY Times piece, Cars’ Voice-Activated Systems Distract Drivers, Study Finds

February 24, 2016 - Reading This While You Drive Could Increase Your Risk of Crashing Tenfold - By Nicholas St. Fleur, in the NY Times, reporting on a study of distracted driving conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the results published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

April 13, 2016 - NY Times - Dispatcher Playing With Cellphone Is Faulted in German Train Crash by Alison Smale

April 27, 2016 - NY Times article by the author on new tech for treating driving while texting like DUI - Texting and Driving? Watch Out for the Textalyzer

August 17, 2016 - NY Times article about a proposal in New Jersey that goes beyond cell phones and texting - A Distracted-Driving Ban in New Jersey? Some Say It Threatens a Way of Life - by Vivian Yee

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 10 percent of fatal crashes and 18 percent of crashes that caused injuries in 2014 were reported to involve drivers distracted by activities including eating, smoking, adjusting the radio or air-conditioning, or being "lost in thought/daydreaming." They caused 3,179 deaths, injuring an estimated additional 431,000 people. In 2014, for the fifth straight year, distracted driving was the top cause of fatal crashes in New Jersey.

November 15, 2016 - Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps by Neal E. Boudette

March 6, 2017 - Why We Can’t Look Away From Our Screens - Claudia Dreifus interviews Adam Alter about his book Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

September 2017 - National Geographic Magazine - How Science is Unlocking the Secrets of Addiction - By Fran Smith

September 6, 2018 - NY Times - Having Trouble Finishing This Headline? Then This Article Is for You. - By Concepción de León

October 26, 2018 - NY Times Magazine - A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley - by Nellie Bowles - Silicon Valley exec know what goes into the tech of small screens and are trying to keep their kids from getting hooked

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hook - In June of 2006 Nineteen year old Reggie Shaw grabs his cell phone, climbs into his SUV and heads off to work. It’s just an ordinary day. Approximately 35 minutes into his ride, two men are dead and three families lives are changed forever.

I’m a minority, one of the unconnected so to speak. I own an old tracfone, rarely on and even though it’s capable of sending a text message I never have. The premise in my quick summation above grabbed me immediately. I’m in the camp that texting while driving is distracted driving. To go a few steps further, I also believe cell phone use is problematic. But what about listening to audio books, the radio or even my passenger’s chatter; are these considered distractions to our attention to the road? Should these all be banned and be punishible crimes? Matt Richtel blends Reggie Shaw’s story with scientific studies that texting and daily use of our devices is not only addictive behavior but a deadly a deadly mix behind the wheel.

The Line – “At one end of the hall at which he found himself, heedless justice in threadbare robes were biting their fingernails or closing their eyelids, at the other end was a ragged rabble. There were lawyers in all sorts of attitudes, the passage begins, and goes on to describe this mess of humanity, all absorbed and self-absorbed participants, even the inattentive judges” and then concludes “for men felt herein the presence of that great human thing which is called law and that great divine thing that is called justice.” a quote from Les Misérables that Judge Willmore kept in the upper right drawer of his desk and came under the heading “A Place for Arriving at Convictions”. It seems appropriate as Reggie Shaw comes to trial for his part in the deaths of the two men.

The Sinker – Should be required reading for teens applying for their driving permits.

A Deadly Wandering is aptly titled as this is just what happens when Reggie Shaw takes to the road that fateful day. He weaves in and out and over the line until the accident happens. I would not do this review justice without giving name to the two rocket scientists killed that day. Keith O’Dell and Jim Furfaro, brilliant men, husbands and fathers. Many others play a part in the investigation and the tragedy of what happened that day when Mr. Shaw’s, Mr. O’Dell, and Mr. Furfaro lives collided.

Matt Richtel has written a compelling, thought provoking piece of investigative journalism. I challenge you to read the book and continue to text.

[Cym & Her Books 🍉 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 19/100 for the 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge.

Damn, this book needs to be mandatory reading for people who have a drivers license. 🚗 The juxtaposition between the personal stories and the psychology studies of attention helped build the story towards the end and helped solidify the court ruling, imo.

I appreciate how factually Richtel portrayed the events of the story and the backgrounds of all persons involved. The decisions people chose to do/not to do were never GOOD OR BAD but were very dependent on context, how they were raised, and how they choose to view themselves. It was interesting to learn a bit about the Mormon church - as an added factoid: I learned that cities in my province are a big hub for the LDS church and some of the story took part here.

The science behind attention (and lack thereof) was quite thought-provoking and I appreciated how it focused on texting and driving specifically. (A lot of what I studied in my final year of university in cognitive psychology was brought up throughout the book!!) There are valid reasons behind why being on your phone behind the wheel is outlawed and I am sorry that situations like this have to occur for change to be made.

3.5 stars rounded down. If you are looking for a great non-fiction book, I would absolutely recommend you check this one out.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Overall this was a pretty good read, but even though the book was just published in 2014, it already feels dated.
Richtel writes beautifully about a horrible texting-while-driving accident and its aftermath. The chapters on the tragedy are interspersed with discussions of technology’s effect on our brains.
But today, texting while driving is illegal in 46 states and I don’t think anyone could make an argument that it’s ok. Because of that, there’s quite a bit of preaching to the choir here.
There was nothing new in the science sections either. I don’t need to read clinical studies to know that technology can be addictive and distracted people don’t do as well on tasks.
To me, this topic would have been better served in a long magazine article, which is actually how it first appeared.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

***NO SPOILERS***

In 2006 texting-and-driving was not yet illegal in the United States. A car crash in September 2006 in Utah was a catalyst in changing that. A Deadly Wandering is about this and a lot more—too much more.

The book grew from an article journalist Matt Richtel wrote for The New York Times entitled “The Lure of Data: Is it Addictive?” He decided to explore the issue further by writing A Deadly Wandering, which centers on the case of a young man named Reggie Shaw, who killed two rocket scientists named Keith O’Dell and James Furfaro while he was texting-and-driving.

Richtel could have covered the case in a long article or series of articles, but because this is a book he bent over backward to flesh it out. It backfired on him. Many investigative reporters smoothly integrate multiple relevant storylines into a harmonious whole, but the task overwhelmed Richtel. The result is a scattered and uneven recounting.

Richtel shifted focus elsewhere to include information that he believed added context to the Shaw accident. It does somewhat. Science-based chapters entitled “The Neuroscientists” go a long way toward taking the mystery out of just why humans are so bad at multi-tasking. He throws around the term “distraction science” a little bit. Neurological experiments proving how dangerous texting-and-driving (and talking on a cellphone while driving) is are enlightening. Occasionally Richtel lost his way in these chapters, presenting too much historical detail, but overall his inclusion of the brain science is a plus.

Richtel’s other focus shift is less successful. He devoted multiple chapters to a victim’s advocate named Terryl Warner clearly to fatten up the book. This woman was an important figure in the case but hardly important enough to merit as much attention as Reggie Shaw. He then went into minute detail about her childhood and her present home life right down to her children’s school projects. He was trying to show the link between Warner’s abusive upbringing and her passion for victim’s advocacy today, but all that background information didn’t add richness.

Similarly, he shared information about the childhoods of one of the detectives and of one of the prosecutors: how one of the widows was finding love again; that O’Dell’s daughter had been raped. The Shaw case almost becomes a footnote.

I also noted a number of embarrassing spelling and inconsistency errors. To cite some, a boy is named “Jake” but called “Jack” on another page. A girl is named “Jayme,” but that’s spelled “Jamie” a sentence or two later. On one page the same paragraph appears twice in a row.

Nevertheless, I rate A Deadly Wandering three stars. I was pulled into its pages every time I settled in to read. Because what happened in the crash was unclear to police, Richtel presented the case like a mystery, having it unfold in pieces. He expertly chronicled the events leading up to the crash, the day of, and the aftermath and also did a superb job putting a human face on Shaw. It would be easy to dismiss Shaw as a dumb and irresponsible nineteen-year-old, but Richtel desperately didn’t want that, and in the end, Shaw’s emotional testimony was crucial in helping pass a bill in Utah to ban texting-and-driving.

Also strong are sections about the victims’ families and Shaw’s family. These parts are some of the book’s most powerful. Some liberal editing to push Warner into the background and move the families into the foreground would have made A Deadly Wandering a tighter and more complete book.

The topic itself—the dangers of texting-and-driving—is also simply interesting and hasn’t been written about exhaustively. Articles on the topic are out there, but A Deadly Wandering goes where many of those don’t, with its deep but accessible dive into neurology.

As irritating as the careless errors are and as confusing as the extraneous information is, the pros of the book balance the cons enough that A Deadly Wandering comes out worth reading. Richtel accomplished what he set out to do. If a more skilled writer publishes a book on the topic, however, I’ll happily read it.

Related article: “Drivers in These States Are Most Likely to Be Distracted By Their Phone” http://time.com/5239524/distracted-dr...

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of us are absolutely obsessed with staying connected – texting friends regularly throughout the day. Every single day, six billion texts are sent in the United States.

Reggie Shaw, a young clean-cut Mormon teenager, was one of those texters. He did not know that he was quite literally on a collision course with destiny. As he inadvertently wove in and out of the lane, his car smashed into another car containing two family men, rocket scientists on their way to work. They were instantly killed.

This gripping book – one of the most important books I’ve read – highlights the journey of Reggie Shaw from collision to reckoning to redemption. By placing a face on the tragedy, Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Richtel drums home the human costs of texting while controlling a two thousand pound piece of machinery.

Yet A Deadly Wandering is far more than one man’s tale. It is a tale of our digital age gone awry. Our brain evolves at a glacial pace, with part of it operating unconsciously, automatically, driven by sensory stimulus and contextual cues” – a phone ringing or the sound of our name. Yet technology has exploded, overwhelming us with more information than we can handle. Much as we want to, we simply cannot focus 100% on two or more things at once. As a result, driving and texting is like driving impaired…not unlike drunk driving. We simly don’t have the brain capacity.

Matt Richtel writes very accessibly about science: “When the phone rings, it triggers a whole social reward network. And it triggers an orienting response that has been wired into us since hunger-gatherer times. You had to pay attention for survival. If you didn’t attend you got eaten by lions. We’re hardwired that way, no matter what we want to do.”

Each person in this sad and cautionary narrative is treated with empathy. Reggie Shaw is a good kid whose life is turned upside down by the tragedy. The victims, Jim Furaro and Keith O’Dell, were good men who died needlessly, leaving behind loving wives and daughters…and propulsive careers. Terryl Warner, the victim’s advocate, is a true survivor, relentless in her pursuit of justice. And Judge Thomas Willmore, who balances justice with fairness and orders his defendants to read Les Miserables, is surely one of the finest of his profession.

On a personal note: as someone whose business depends on fast response, my cell phone is right next to me when I drive. This is a behavior-changing book that persuasively shows the human cost of distracted driving. Reggie Shaw’s texting cost two lives; his mission to publicize that tragedy may save thousands. As Arthur Miller wrote in Death of a Salesman, “Attention must be paid.”

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good God, did the writer get paid PER WORD? Saying this book is well-researched is an understatement! The reader is saturated with background about every single person he introduces and who may only momentary matter. Initially, I loved this book, so much so, I gave it 3 stars, and would ration how much I'd read because I didn't want to finish it. Now, for about a week, I dread picking it up, and have therefore deducted 1 star. It's become like a friend who has overstayed their visit! But I want to know what happens. Just not to each and every single person!

Ok, all that aside, I love the idea of research: if you've read the other reviews, you know, by now, what I mean by this. I've become a PSA (public service announcement) to anyone under 30 who'll indulge me about the danger of texting and driving. Strangely, so far, they've been willing to listen. This book is a wake up call. I wish it was 100 pages shorter. Was there an editor???

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone, yes, everyone, should read this book. I have never ever said that before about any book, but there it is. I can't remember reading anything that has so changed the way I look at, well, most everything. In reading many of the 5 star reviews here, I see that I can add nothing about the story. What spoke most to me was the "attention science", the neuroscience of attention and distraction, along with its human counterparts. That has changed the way I drive (being more attentive to the road of course, but also trying to use my "hands-free" cell phone a lot less.) The temptation to distraction is not only to stay connected all the time--that has never been a problem of mine--but all of the others. Now, if I'm going to listen to a podcast, to Pandora, or Spotify, I pull over and get it set up, and don't change it while I'm driving. I haven't been challenged by a long trip by myself yet, but I hope I stay as faithful as possible to this behavior change.
As a side benefit I find I am paying more attention to what someone is telling me, my surroundings, and so on--and an epiphany: studies have shown that car accidents are more common if you are talking on a cell phone, even hands-free, than if you are having a conversation with your front seat mate. And studies also show that a LOT of passengers text. So, it is a WHOLE lot safer to have two sets of eyes on the road, neither distracted, than one. I just shared that with my spouse!
So, read this book for the compelling human story, the neuroscience, the incredible police work involved in the investigation, etc., but come away with a new respect for distraction and the power of paying attention.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good chronicle of the journey of banning texting while driving. I have to admit that in 2025 this seems like an ancient historical tome. There was an accident caused by a young white Mormon kid which killed two scientists in Utah. It's important that the reader understands the makeup of the kid because he is the impetus for the laws in place today. They had to go after this person specifically so that Americans could understand that this affected everybody. To be clear, it was important to convict a white, all American upstanding, middle-class kid who was desperately trying to fulfill his mission with his church. A clean cut upstanding white male with an outstanding record. Important because built into the system in America is this notion that white folks deserve their freedoms, and the conduct of "others" must be policed by the system. Here white guy = Americans. The kid is forever damaged by the accident became a tireless, fierce advocate for no distractions while driving. He served a year in prison.

Now I am not going after this kid because by all accounts he seems like a good person, with a conscience who has shown remorse and is having a hard time living with himself for what he did. But I am angry at the white supremacy systemic bias that requires that this kind of kid be the perpetrator in order to get rational laws to prevent it. I mean, jeez, if this kid had no remorse, there is no indication that these laws would be in effect right now. Also, he killed two men with families and he served a year. Idk. The whole thing seems quaint some 20 years later, well before the smart phone took hold. This also includes using the phone while driving which led to hands free laws and technology that automatically integrates your cell phone into your car systems. It's so obvious one shouldn't text and drive just like it's obvious that one should drink and drive. Oh the hazards of reading a book over 10 years after it was written. To America's credit, it didn't seem to take lots of incidents before these laws went into effect. It's as if they understood instinctually that the distraction danger was there. In a litany of failures on public policy this one was a win in that the response to the issue was immediate. We need more of that instead of reflexively rejecting public policy as taking away our freedoms (masks during COVID or how about access to rapid fire guns for all, anyone?).

This was a well written and intersting book, though if I'm being honest, a little too much biography on people who were at most tangental to the subject at hand. I suppose that's what makes a book rather than a magazine article. The main lesson still holds.

"For all the gifts of computer technology, if its power goes underappreciated, it can hijack the brain."

Don't text and drive. In today's climate more than ever, the distractions are there. Stay vigilant!

4 Stars

Listened to the audiobook. Fred Berman was a very good narrator!

[Galen Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I admire the work that went into this book, the writing was just too overdone and poorly edited for the book to be enjoyable to me. Everything had to be spelled out again and again-- after chapters of describing Reggie's town and family and religious community, the author summarizes just in case we didn't get the point: "After all, it's not uncommon for young people to lie to parents or a pastor….And they tell those lies even when there isn't the intense cultural pressure that Reggie felt as part of a small Mormon community. The very language used by people in Tremonton betrayed just how intense that pressure was. Mary Jane feared a "disgrace" when Reggie came home. Gaylyn even wondered about how people come home after a failed mission. The environment explains how Reggie could have felt himself in a fishbowl or crucible, how he's put his family in a bad light." The author didn't seem to trust the reader to make obvious connections, and would repeat things time and again. He explained The author explained what a zipline is twice in the book, in chapters 21 and 33. A prison sentence is described as 18 days in Chapter 43 and 30 days in Chapter 45. Not only were points over-explained, but there were typos and mistakes in the version I read (discussing how Les Miserables by Victor Hugo discusses a chaotic courtroom scene in France in the early 1900s, which is strange because the book was already historical fiction when published in the mid-1800s, and "In reflecting at who I was age at nineteen, I am very ashamed…") The only reason I would recommend this book is if the topic really interests you-- the reporting is comprehensive, even if it makes for an awkward read.

[Julia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all know texting while driving is dangerous. So why do we keep doing it? Could it be that we CAN'T stop the compulsion to stay connected; that we are so over-stimulated by our social networks and pressured to multitask that we are addicted, and in collective denial? A Deadly Wandering is a riveting account of the fatal tragedy and subsequent seminal legal (and moral) battle that led to texting-while-driving bans being signed into law. It links neuroscience research, legal undertakings, and narrative nonfiction—full of vivid, heartbreaking real-life “characters”—to expose and objectively question our modern glorification of multitasking and tech-connectedness. Richtel’s exceptional reporting will absolutely change the way you think about the devices that keep us online: you will close this book transformed. This is astonishing, moving, eye-opening stuff—and a crucial conversation, as we grow frighteningly more and more attached to our devices. One of the most important books of our time.

[Amy Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

ScienceThrillers.com review: Matt Richtel is a science journalist who covers Silicon Valley for the New York Times. In 2009, he wrote a front page story about distracted driving. The story went viral in part because the subject touches so many of us. Richtel was one of the first to put a mirror in front of us, making us unwillingly recognize the ways in which we have allowed our technology to control us and to put us at risk both physically (while driving) and emotionally (in our relationships). His one story became a series, and a Pulitzer Prize followed.

Richtel is fascinated by our uneasy coexistence with digital connectedness and invasive communication. He has spun this interest and expertise beyond world-class journalism into fiction with several brilliant science thriller novels (The Cloud, Devil's Plaything). Now with the release of A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention, Richtel brings his thoughtful, articulate writing to book-length narrative nonfiction.

A Deadly Wandering might change your life.

Most of the words in this book tell the stories of people affected by a horrible car wreck in Utah in 2006. The primary focus is on Reggie Shaw, a 19-year-old Everyman who was texting while driving and crossed the center line, killing two people. In the style of a well-written true crime tale, A Deadly Wandering explores the characters: Reggie, his family, the victims and their families, neighbors in the small community, law enforcement, legislators, judges, and jailers. These stories of tragedy and its aftermath make for a page-turning read.

But Richtel does more than tell the story of the 2006 crash. Using that incident as the example that illustrates the rule, Richtel weaves alternating chapters about the larger story of distracted driving and the even bigger story of our relationship with modern communications technology. With the help of neuroscientists who study the brain and its ability (or inability) to pay attention (some of the most interesting characters in this book), Richtel asks, why is it so hard to lock away the phone when we’re driving? Is social technology addictive? An extreme compulsion? Or simply habit forming?

The author says:

All the tweets and Facebook updates, the emails, the YouTube videos, and texts are not creating themselves. They are enabled by technology, sure. But they are driven by the humans pressing the buttons, asking for a tiny piece of the fractured spotlight.

He cites research that “the motivation to disclose our internal thoughts and knowledge to others” is inherent to our species. We have a deep, primitive desire to communicate. For millennia, our technical ability to give and receive communication was proportional to our brain’s ability to process it. This is no longer the case. Each click, each ping, “gives a little rush, a tiny dopamine squirt,” a narcotic-like pleasure to our brains, but our attention is overwhelmed.

A Deadly Wandering also explores questions of justice and forgiveness, and the emergence of legislation to restrict phone use while driving. Richtel highlights the problem that hands-free cell phone use is no less distracting than holding a phone to your ear, and that automakers are introducing ever more distracting technologies into the cockpits of our cars, and that from a neurological perspective, multitasking is a myth.

After reading this book, I’ve examined my own use of social technology and am approaching not only cell phone use in the car but all my digital interactions with a new trepidation. The message, I think, is one we all pay lip service to but are challenged to act upon: Be fully with the people in your presence. Simplify. And pay attention.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cautionary tale of a young man who caused a car accident that killed two men because he was texting and driving. The author not only follows the young man and the subsequent legal implications but current researching on the brain and what we know about our attention span. We're still learning what draws our attention, and we don't always have the control that we think we do. Richtel demonstrates that it's not just the act of doing something else while driving that's dangerous but the ease with which we are naturally distracted by things like dinging phones. I didn't find it as well written as I'd hoped, and I found some of the science too detailed to maintain my interest(wonder what that says about attention and distraction?), but it was compelling in a certain way.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a journalist’s detailed examination of an early incident of texting while driving before most states made it illegal. It examines the circumstances surrounding then nineteen-year-old Reggie Shaw, living in Utah, who caused a crash that resulted in the deaths of two people. He was texting. Richtel describes the lives of everyone associated with this event, including those who died and their surviving families, the lawyers involved in the court case, law enforcement personnel, a victim’s advocate, Reggie’s family members, and of course, Reggie himself.

The main reason I was attracted to this book is that it purported to be about the science of attention, and it does contain a few chapters on it, but I wanted more neuroscience about the impact of technology on our brains. What I got was a more detailed personal story that went way too far into the personal lives of the people involved for my taste. Did we really need to know about the child abuse experienced by one of the victim’s advocates at an early age? If the author had concentrated on Reggie and the victims, it would have been much more powerful. It also contains way more Mormon theology than I cared to read.

The good news is that it provides a comprehensive analysis of one event that was clearly related to texting while driving and how Reggie Shaw eventually took responsibility and spread the message about the dangers. This and other tragic examples led to massive changes in many states’ laws. It serves as a warning to all of us to put away the tech devices (if we haven’t already) and focus on the road.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 4 out of 5]

One morning in September, 2006, Reggie Shaw was driving while texting on a Utah road. He was witnessed swerving into the oncoming lane several times. He ended up hitting another vehicle that held two men, both rocket scientists, husbands, and fathers. They were killed on impact. This book describes the dangers of driving and texting but, more than that, the impact of modern interactive technologies on human attention. It also goes into the lives of the people who were involved in the crash: the families of the dead men, Reggie and his family, the people in the justice system, and the police.

The chapters are short and each one is about either a person who is involved in the accident on some level, the justice system, or the neuroscientists working on attention. I found the writing fascinating. I don't read a lot of non-fiction and when a book holds my attention like this one did, it has to be a page-turner. Matt Richtel, the author and a New York Times journalist, is a pulitzer prize winner.

Initially, Reggie does not remember what happened during the accident and lies about having texted while driving. He is a member of the LDS church and his greatest desire is to go on a mission. He was denied a mission once because he lied to his bishop about the nature of his relationship with his girlfriend. After the accident, he is intent on going on another mission. To those who look at him, he appears to have no remorse, though internally, he is traumatized.

Terryl is the victim's advocate for the county in Utah where the accident occurred. She has experienced a very rough childhood that has made her resilient and strong. She is determined that Reggie not get a free pass on what occurred. She wants him punished to the full extent of the law.

The research that is now occurring on attention and interactive technological devices is laid out so that anyone can understand it. It has been proven that talking on a cell phone or texting while driving causes loss of attention and an increased number of accidents. Multi-tasking decreases attention; it does not extend it. In fact, research has demonstrated that "using a phone behind the wheel is as risky as driving drunk."

I found some of the information repetitive and I felt like the author repeated things because they were so important. I agree with him. They are very important. However, I wish he had trusted the acumen of his readers to absorb and retain what he said rather than feeling the need to restate the obvious.

This is a very important book, one that I am very glad I read. I know people who are glued to their phones or other devices and rarely look up. They are a danger to themselves and others. I hope they are the ones that read this book.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it, but I had a hard time with it in several places. It is absolutely unbelievable to me -- and to anyone who (there's no other way to say this) isn't an idiot -- that the young man responsible for a crash while texting didn't remember that he was texting. He denied it over and over, to law enforcement and to friends and family, and was pretty much caught red-handed coaching the not-terribly-bright young woman with whom he was texting -- and we're expected to believe this? It cheapened everything about him to me, and I already didn't take to this individual very well, because texting while driving doesn't seem at all like something you should have to be told not to do in order to understand that it's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. It called into question everything about his not-harrowing-at-all experience -- poor little sheltered white kid goes to jail for 18 days, boo hoo -- and unfortunately his alleged remorse, which reminded me to a great extent of Anne Shirley enjoying every moment of her theatrical apology in Anne of Green Gables, except Anne Shirley HADN'T KILLED TWO PEOPLE BECAUSE SHE WAS AN IDIOT.

The neuroscience was fascinating, and the story of the victim's advocate and the determined state trooper who eventually brought this extraordinarily selfish and theatrical young man to justice was interesting too. But there are circumstances in which I can't find any compassion, and a person who killed two people because he made an incredibly foolish and selfish decision, and then consistently lied about it for more than a year, has done nothing to warrant it.

[Iliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think everyone should read (parts of) this book because it's still astounding how people think they are invincible and don't have a second thought about using their phone while driving. I've been in the passenger seat more than once with a driver using their phone and crossing the yellow line and they don't even think anything of it. The neuroscience bits were really interesting and changed my views on multitasking.
But there was just something about the way Richtel tells this story that I just didn't connect with? I don't know I just really didn't like the way he put the book together, his dramatic flairs that fell flat to me, and his completely unnecessary descriptions and biographical information of some people. This book really didn't need chapters about Terryl and her children. Who cares if her kids won some competitions? Who cares about her kids period? And towards the end of the book I was just annoyed. Dude didn't really have to describe clothes that people we wearing or the height of a minor player in the story. Or what someone was eating while he was explaining science of attention.

[Dalton Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

I finished this a couple days ago but forgot to update my goodreads. This was a very well informed book about texting and driving and the problems technology creates in society today. However, their were points in the book that were really stretched out for absolutely no reason (during discussions in my AP English class I said that it was like a student writing a 1000 word essay but only being at 750 words so they just keep repeating what they already said until they hit word count). I'm excited to meet the author and discuss it and why he decided to include certain people's perspectives.

[Gideon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Deadly Wandering I won an advance copy from Goodreads and I have not been able to put it down. Richtel weaves an engrossing narrative, with excellently researched background and science. Richtel does a great job presenting the story, the mindset of the characters and the scientific data without imposing his own value judgements. The reader must make up their own mind. This is a must-read for anybody who uses digital devices. I guess that means it's a must-read for everybody.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true crime story about an incident that wasn't really a crime at the time.

A kid who is a bit of a screw up gets into an accident with a fatality. He claims he wasn't on his phone. Some policeman with too much time on his hands won't let go. He traces the kid's phone through dubiously legal means, and can prove that the kid was texting on his phone, which wasn't illegal at the time.

Now, we have all sorts of laws against it, even though people do it all the time anyway.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a little undergraduate at the University of Utah, getting my psychology degree, I was required to participate in a number of psychological experiments that were happening in the research labs. One of them was the driving simulation by Dr. David Strayer that was referenced in this very book! I did not get drunk and then do the driving simulation, in fact mine involved driving the simulation and then sometimes texting while driving during the simulation. For that reason alone, I quite liked reading this book.
I was first intrigued by the tease of groundbreaking legal stuff, the first case of its kind and all that hype. When I started reading and discovered it took place in my home state of Utah, I was surprised and pulled in even further. I think the brain is a fascinating part of the human experience and enjoyed reading about research about phone usage in the car. It has absolutely influenced me to not text and drive and cut back on any phone use at all in the car. The point about your brain still processing rewarding social interactions even when you actually aren’t texting or talking, while piloting a massive machine that has the potential to kill, diverting your attention hit me in a deeper way than just some gory ad campaign that is easy to shake off. It was sobering, behavior altering reading. I think about it still, even a couple months after finishing reading the story. The book is about attention, technology and how the intersection of the two is rapidly changing our functionality and lives. Against this broader topic, is a story with a focus on one person, Reggie Shaw, and how his decision changed his life forever and his painful journey to reconstruct a “new normal”.
Reggie Shaw was one of the first people to be involved in a texting car accident. It was an interesting in that he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The book interweaves the cultural and spiritual impacts from belonging to that religion into the book, instead of downplaying them and shying away from them.
The story begins with Reggie, who is working on returning to go on his mission, and is driving to work one day, sends a text and veers just slightly over into the other lane, killing two rocket engineers headed to work at ATK (!) driving the opposite way from Reggie. The book then goes through each heartbreaking step from that point, including the viewpoint of a witness to the accident, the officer on the scene and how Reggie responds. It follows the grief journey of the families of the two men that were killed, Reggie’s continuing isolation, confusion and finally, his realization and breakdown. Terryl, is also an important character, a woman with ties to the families whose fathers and husbands were killed in the accident, who serves as their advocate for justice.
One note: There was a comment from a book club member, K-Lowe, that the author had to give everyone a tragic backstory. Once I heard that, it was difficult to read the book without noticing that pattern, intentional or not; the author did have a tendency to gravitate towards details of tragedy, sometimes unnecessary to what was already a compelling story. Terryl, is pretty fierce to read about though, having overcome a very difficult childhood.
One of the most uplifting aspects of the book is despite the tragedy and opposing sides, is to see how Reggie is so impacted by what’s happened and his courage to speak about it, take accountability as it were, actually brings each side some measure of understanding and compassion. Reggie eventually goes through a legal trial and then his path of using his experience into making real change in the community.

Content:
Some graphic details from the car accident.

Favorite Quotes

“…personal communications devices are unprecedented at capturing both our top-down and bottom up awareness systems, even without our awareness….engaging the top down systems that want to find answers, complete tasks, follow narratives. They are the narrative of our lives, our work, our relationships. How will things turn out? How are we doing at work? How are things going with our spouse, or partner, or children?
And the devices do it with lights and sounds that capture us beyond our ability to control. They buzz with incoming information, chime, change colors and images that call to us. This can reinforce our goals-altering us to important information- but also capture our attention even when we don’t want it to, even when it’s dangerous, like when we’re behind the wheel.
Technology companies are trying to get more of our brains per unit time. It’s as close to a business model as you can imagine. The more engaged you are in what they create, the more successful they are.”

“What they found was that the reward areas of the brain light up when people share. ‘Here, we suggest that humans so willingly self-disclose because doing so represents an event with intrinsic value, in the same way as with primary awards such as food and sex. The motivation to disclose our internal thoughts and knowledge to others may serve to sustain the behaviors that underlie the extreme sociality of our species.
Part of the reason why it’s not so easy to understand the powerful lure of technology-is it addictive? the cause of extreme compulsion? or simply habit forming?-has to do with the complexity of the technology itself. Various mechanisms are at work. Some have to do with the nature of the information the devices deliver- the value, say of personal information or the value of good news versus bad news. Some are purely mechanical, having to do with how the information is delivered. For instance, the speed at which a device delivers information can dictate how drawn we are to it. Another mechanical piece has tot do with the way our brains get stimulated by the mere act of touching the device and, in doing so, causing something to happen. Touch the keyboard and a letter appears…this step is separate from, and arguably more primitive than, the receiving of information; before we get information, we are getting some stimulation through the act of stimulus response.”

“The evidence is growing that very early exposure to television is associated with negative developmental outcomes…The children who watched the faced-paced show were less able to follow directions and, in a separate set of tasks, showed less patience. These are “executive function” tasks, meaning they engage the pre-frontal cortex, that all-important part of the brain involved in focus….the result is consistent with others showing long-term negative associations between entertainment television and attention.”

[Lucy Mencimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly amazing read. So much info about the dangers of distracted driving.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this in the airport and got it for my Kindle because it looked interesting, and it apparently was very well received. It's about a kid in Utah who is driving on the highway one morning and is texting his girlfriend. He weaves out of his lane and causes and accident that takes two lives, neither of them his. At first, he claimed he didn't remember texting while he was driving, and we are never sure if he was telling the truth or not. I suspect he wasn't, but the author didn't want to say that, because it would make the kid look worse.

It is a tragic story, and the kid didn't do it on purpose. But the story tries to get a little into the nature of his culpability, how much he should be punished for doing something stupid that everyone does, but in his case killed two people. But the author also goes into great detail into research on human attention, how our brains deal with multi-tasking. The answer is a pretty simple one, and there is nothing earth-shattering there. When we multi-task, like trying to text and drive, we don't pay enough attention to what we're doing, and we don't do what we're doing well. We take our eyes off the road, we weave around, and if we are a little unlucky, we have an accident. We probably don't text well, either. I don't think the research uncovered anything we didn't already know, and for that reason, there's not really any reason to go into the detail he did. And the writing seemed sloppy. There were several sentences that were flat-out grammatically incorrect.

The story of the kid's redemption was interesting. He did finally take responsibility for the accident, and apparently has dedicated his life to teaching others about the dangers of texting while driving. But the overall telling of the story could have been a lot better.

[Bookfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last week, I went on a birdwatching trip that required me to travel alone from central OH to SW West VA. It was an easy drive but I had never been there before, so I had to pay attention. I decided what better way to occupy myself while driving than listing to my tutorials for birding by ear--how to recognize songs and calls. However, I found myself having to restart the various tracks because while I was learning the difference between hairy and downy woodpeckers I found that the track was on to downys and I had missed the hairys. This happened several times before I gave up and put in The Traveling Wilburys.

Suppose I had decided to concentrate on woodpeckers instead of, for example, where to get off of Rt.33 to I-50 or whether someone is about to pull out ahead of me to reach an exit? This could not have been a more perfect example of how people choose what they will attend to. This book is about a young man who chose his cell phone over staying in his lane, and two rocket scientists died as a result. He will think about this every day for the rest of his long life. Outreach and education are his penance. I wanted to hate him for what he did. But in the end I was profoundly sorry for him, as well as the families his actions tore into pieces.

[Ann Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for my book club, and it was assigned for my book club because a busy friend had to teach it because our university adapted it as their "campus read" (meaning all first year students must read it). My "campus read" was _The Iliad_, so my bias here is obvious. This book is a poorly cobbled together series of what must have been lectures, journalistic accounts, and maybe tv segments. It is poorly organized and sloppily written. It uses sensationalistic language to "build suspense" over an entirely unsuspenseful question: did a young man text when he killed two other men in a car accident? Gee, I wonder. Would the book exist if he hadn't? The character sketches are cheesy, with lots of pointless details added ( who cares that the victim's advocate broke her wrists on a zip line?). They are also repetitive chapter to chapter. Accounts of the wreck alternate with poorly digested descriptions of research on attention. The author focuses as much on the people who do the research as the research itself. The chronology of the case at the center of the book is not linear, which makes the central narrative difficult to follow. This book is a dud. I can save you from the unpleasantness of reading it by providing its one obvious point in four words: don't text and drive.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a journalistic report of a tragic event along with the research, science and lay interpretations of it all. The story aspect of the book is solid and while I’m familiar with some of the players as colleagues and as friends I found myself listening to the experience through the author’s investigation and able to set aside any bias I might have brought to the situation. The parallel reporting on the leading edge science, at the time, of human attention and technology is compelling. The fact that Reggie chose to use his voice and experience to work toward change for himself, the victims and all of society is heroic, but he would never consider it such. This case set precedent in the US as it propelled the state political leaders to enact law and force our thinking about distraction and driving to new boundaries. I recommend this book for all drivers, new young teen drivers along with those who have or have not ever been in an accident.

[Peter Richter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book could have been a 10-20 page magazine article. Spoiler alert: Texting while driving is bad. That's basically what all the detail in the book spent on scientific research and all the detail about the trial simply boils down to. From a literary perspective, I didn't find the writing particularly compelling. I thought too much time was spent on the life histories of the characters involved in the story which wasn't really relevant to the main narrative. I found the scientific revelations not all that revelatory and the decisions in the trial not all that surprising. The main thing that interested me was the studies behind the addictive nature of technology, but inevitably the book was more about the distractive nature of cell phones while driving. I can't say that this was a page turner and I can't say that I discovered anything that wasn't fairly obvious.

[Gwenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a page turning combination of real life tragedy, neuroscientific discoveries, and the attempt of one teenager to somehow redeem the fact that he killed two people one morning, while driving and sending 11 texts to his girlfriend. You'll turn your phone off every time you get in the car after reading it, and change lanes if you see anyone staring at their phone in traffic. It could literally be the only thing that saves your life. If you have a teenage or young adult friend or family member, make a gift of this book.

[LeAnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It was a nice mixture of science-heavy background and putting human faces on the important issue that is distracted driving. But it also has an overall theme that is paramount to this generation -- issues with attention and distraction due to brain-overload with all of our constantly chirping and chiming social and mobile devices.

Highly recommended.

[Leslie Maughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richtel writes, "We all know that texting and driving is dangerous, but we do it anyway. Why?" This is THE question. I wish everyone would read this book, understand the science, quit texting & driving, and we wouldn't have to ask that question anymore. This book is a great read, and it's packed with scientific evidence that we really don't have the capabilities to multitask like we think we do. Reggie's story puts a human face to the tragedy this can cause. His is a cautionary tale, and I think, "But for the grace of God, go I." And, I loved reading a book about where I live.

I wish it were required reading for everyone who drives.

Some of my favorite lines from the book:

"the cocktail party effect shows the limitations of attention; after all, you can't pay attention to two conversations at once. In fact, it's so limited that if you're really listening to the person in front of you, there are generally only two things you can pick up in a different conversation: the gender of the person speaking or, in some cases, the sound of your name."

"it's a visual, manual, cognitive problem." -Dr. Strayer

"the reward areas of the brain light up when people share" information.

"When the television is on, parents and children disengage from one another. The parents, even if not instructed to watch television, talk less to their children and respond less to children's inquiries and efforts to get attention, according to a summary published in 2009 by some of the field's leading researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In the study, parents interacted with their children 68 percent of the time when the television was off and 54 percent of the time when it was on. Further, the research showed, the 'quality' of the interaction fell, too, with the parent less likely to be engaged or even look at the child when they do interact."

"children who watch more television in their toddler years are significantly more likely to have attention problems by age seven."

"researchers worry that heavy use of interactive media can, over time, reduce attention spans."

"It could be compromising our ability to make decisions."

"learning, memory, and decision making get impacted by an overloaded brain."

"If it co-opts our attention, it could reshape our sense of reality."

Dr. Strayer on texting and driving: "'The scientific data says there is a sixfold increase in crash risk.' [... A] driver talking on the phone faced a four-times increase in likelihood of a crash. & 'Depending on the complexity of the driving task, it may take fifteen seconds or more after you've pushed "send" before you're fully back in an unimpaired state.'"

"'The culture is: "It's not me, it's you. I'm the good driver"' Harsha says."