Important book. I wish everyone with a cell phone and a car would read it. ( )

This is an interesting and valuable book, and I was intrigued by some of the details related to attention and multitasking. However, I do question why there were so many errors in a book on technology (isn't technology designed to capture errors in the absence of actual human editors?) - just the ones I noticed: the city Winnipeg spelled both correctly and incorrectly; a name spelled incorrectly (once); the city Hartford spelled correctly and incorrectly, very closely together; the use of the word "fullest" which apparently is acceptable nowadays but still grates on my nerves; the use of "honed in" when it should be "homed in"; and one that I don't believe I have seen in a book before - a paragraph repeated (just in case we weren't paying attention, I guess, which is the theme of the book!). ( )

First and foremost, this book is an example of American journalism at its very best. If you happen to subscribe to the notion promoted by one of our former presidents that the news media are the “enemy of the people,” read this book and if you have half a brain, you’ll quickly jettison that belief. This is a story that continues to be told, unfortunately, over and over: the story of auto deaths as a result of “distracted driving.” And, of course, as we all know, much of that distracted driving is from the use of cell phones by the driver, either talking or, more often, texting while driving. Matt Richtel cites many statistics in his book, but maybe the most concerning and telling is this: 98% of drivers polled agreed that texting and driving was dangerous. That sounds about right. But, of those 98%, a full 45% admit to texting and driving themselves. That is mind blowing. And think of your own experiences with drivers you’ve seen using cell phones, even after states have one by one passed laws making using cell phones illegal. Think of the last time you were behind another car at a stop light and the light changed to green. If that car just sat there while you waited to proceed, chances are pretty good that the driver is texting. Many times motorists will be talking on their cell phone in full view of anyone around them. And, after all, the chances of being pulled over for that are slim and none. Richtel’s book focuses on one case in Utah of distracted driving causing not one death but two, both fathers and both in the prime of their careers as rocket scientists. Utah is one of what I call “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” states, states that think requiring parents to have their children in child seats in the car is an infringement of their rights. Other states in this category are Mississippi, South Carolina, and even my own home state of Indiana. Since this accident happened in 2006, Utah and many of the rest of the DTMWTD states have come around and have passed texting and driving laws. Matt Richtel’s reporting, which resulted in a Pulitzer Prize, is largely responsible for getting the ball rolling. This book is that important. In fact, I think any driver taking Drivers’ Education should be required to read it as part of the course. One last thing: I listened to this book in its audio version. Kudos to narrator Fred Berman. If you’ve listened to any books, you know how important the reader is. Fred Berman did justice to this very important book. ( )

Interesting and well written. ( )

The book is about a car wreck in Utah in 2007 in which two scientists were killed. They were hit by a teenager who was tailgating a semi-tractor trailer and whose SUV crossed the center line multiple times before it finally clipped the oncoming car, causing it to careen into the oncoming traffic lane were it was hit by a heavily loaded pickup pulling a trailer. The teen driver said he had hydroplaned on wet roads. Later investigation showed that he had been texting while driving and he did not remember texting at all. How could that be? That is where the Attention Science part of the book comes into play and the reading becomes fascinating. The author goes back to the beginnings of Attention Science in WWII when scientists tried to figure out why RADAR operators missed so many incoming enemy planes when they plainly showed up on screens and follows the science throughout the investigation and into the court room.

Once the Utah Highway patrol figured out that the facts of the wreck didn't add up and started investigating, decisions had to be made about how to charge the driver who caused the wreck. Could he be tried? Did any laws currently on the books in Utah apply? Ultimately these questions led to the passage of some of the toughest distracted driving laws in the U. S. by the state of Utah in 2012.

Everybody thinks that they can multitask, but the scientific fact is that we can't. Our brains can only do one thing at a time and the brain selects what is the most important and puts the rest off to deal with later. That is what the science shows. The science is at war with business in this case. As the author points out, Telephone companies deliberately advertised the use of cell phones while driving and did so up until 2015. Cell phone towers were deliberately placed along interstate highways and popular main arterial highways to ensure that there would be few dropped calls. It turns out that even talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous and increases the likelihood of an accident. There is little difference in the statistics of hands free talking on the phone or holding a phone while talking. The author takes the time to explain why, in general, talking to a passenger in the car with you is safer than using a phone - turns out that two pairs of eyes are better than one. The passenger acts as a second set of eyes and alerts the driver of things that they should notice. This book explains how the science, the implement, the driver, and our culture all come together to create a very dangerous situation for those who use cell phones while driving.

This was certainly an eye-opening book, and it will make any conscientious person put the wireless telephone in the trunk of the car each time they get in to drive, but it could have been a much better book than it was. The author gets into the weeds when he starts delving into the personal lives of everybody involved in this particular case and that part of the book gets monotonous. Even so, I think that the topic is so important that it should have many more readers than it seemed to get. ( )