A Deadly Wandering PDF

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A Deadly Wandering Chapter by Chapter Notes Chapter 1  Reggie Shaw- main character, normal “all-American” boy, spent his entire life preparing for a Mormon mission (which was ruined because he admitted to having sex with his girlfriend).  The entire town knows that he got kicked off his mission trip which seems pretty embarrassing.  Reggie starts working at a company a town over and has to leave for work really early in the morning.  One morning he is driving while John Kaiserman follows him in his truck which has a trailer attached to the back  John is worries because Reggie seems to be driving crazy (swerving into the other lane)  Driving in the opposite direction on their way to work is Jim Furfaro and Keith O’Dell. They are scientists working on rockets  As the cars pass, Reggie’s car drifts into the other lane and clips the side of the scientist’s car.  The car carrying Jim and Keith spins out of control and hits into John’s trucks.  Jim and Keith die at the scene  When the police arrive, Reggie states that he pulled left and clipped a car, on the way to the hospital, Reggie keeps saying that he hydroplaned.  The officer sees Reggie texting in the car Chapter 2  Keith’s wife Leila  Apparently, Keith was a model husband  The police inform both Leila and Jackie, Jim Furfaro’s wife, of their deaths  Reggie is being interviewed  A point to make is that there are no rules about cell phone use while driving at this point  The trope thinks that Reggie is rubbing off the blame  Reggie’s brother is a lawyer, Phil, so they call him  Phil tells Reggie to stop volunteering information  The trooper could have simply written a ticket, but feels that Reggie isn’t being truthful with him 100% Chapter 3  Adam Gazzaley is a neurologist and neuroscientist who runs the department at UCSF. World expert in the science of attention  He uses technology like FMRI, EEG, TMS to look at brain function.  Attention gives us the ability to threat or perceive an opportunity Chapter 4  We discover that Reggie has 3 siblings.  Mary Jane and Ed are Reggie’s parents and they have been married since they were 18 and 19.  Reggie comes from a small Mormon community

Ed is very worried that Reggie will be sent to jail. He thinks about a story he heard of a young man being killed in jail.  Terryl Warner is a victim advocate in Cache County and a friend of the Furfaro family Chapter 5  This chapter is about Terry and his troubled childhood.  HE father was a substance abuser of pills and alcohol, also is prone to violent behavior.  Once he threatened to kill his wife while intoxicated.  Terryl’s older brother Michael started to smoke pot and sniff gasoline.  Terryl became an avid reader to distract himself from his troubled family life. Chapter 6  The trooper thinks about the day’s events  Leila is arranging Keith’s funeral so that it will be after Jim’s so that friends can attend both. Their daughter Morgan, is really upset.  Jackie is also arranging Jim’s funeral and trying to support Chapter 7  Dr. Gazzaley describes the cocktail party problem o When surrounded by conversations at a cocktail party, focus and attention interplay, shifting from individual to individual showing the limitation of attention. You cannot pay attention to two conversations at once  Today, there are infinite opportunities to communicate, and we must interact with the ever-growing media.  In a typical day, we are interrupted by various media stimulation more and more. Even in the sharing of scientific information, we are becoming oversaturated with information.  Distraction is a powerful weapon. Chapter 8  The effects of Terryl’s childhood are discussed. Her father was extremely abusive.  Terryl discovered that Danny was not her biological father when he parents filed for divorce.  She went to community college with support of her employers.  She continued her education at USC  Even in college, her father haunted her life  He would show up when her and her younger brother were together and take him  Terryl pretty much decided that she didn’t want a family. Chapter 9  The trooper plans a follow up interview with John  He learns that Reggie’s mom wishes to have a lawyer present from any interview of Reggie.  She Is” Scared to death”  Dallas Miller is Reggie’s best friend.  Nick is Reggie’s older brother and the two of them don’t exactly get along.  They are highly competitive and they both have a lot of electronics  Teen media use has soared and so has multitasking Chapter 10  Reggie leaves his house for the first time after 3 days 

He is terrified by each passing car He goes to see Gaylyn White the counselor o They review the day’s events o Reggie has a hard time remembering but he knows that he must have done something wrong o She tells him that he should write letters to the families of Keith and Jim o The letters continuously state “I’m sorry” o Ten days later the counselor states that Reggie is doing better but she is still very concerned. o She knows that he returned early from his mission and she is wondering if he lied about why he left to deal with another disappointment  Reggie had pre-marital sex over Christmas break and lied to the Bishop about it. He also lied to his girlfriend Cammi Chapter 11  How can pilots navigate when they are focused on gauges, listening to radios, and evading antiaircraft fire?  Dr. Gazzaley looks back to World War II to explain the relationship between man and machine.  attention o This helped prove that our attention filters are not a total block o We also pay attention to things that go on inside our brain  Top-down attention is what we use to direct out focus. Bottom-up allows us to capture out attention instantly.  Bottom-up attention operates unconsciously  Both types of attention are both essential to survival and thus balance each other  Technology companies try to occupy more of our brain per unit of time. The more engaged in what they create, the more successful they car Chapter 12  Reggie gets a job at a car dealership arranged by his childhood baseball coach  Keith’s widow goes back to work as a bookkeeper  She discovers that Reggie’s family has retained an attorney.  Leila visits the scene of the accident which makes her very upset  A few days later she becomes very ill and has to go to the ER  Jackie, Jim’s widow gets back online playing World of Warcraft.  She makes contact with Gary Maloney, an old friend of Jim and hers.  He tells her that she isn’t alone.  She cannot bring herself to drive past the scene and also leans that Reggie has hired a lawyer and suggested that Jim also crossed the yellow line.  She wonders why Reggie couldn’t have just called and said he was sorry. Chapter 13  The trooper is convinced that the accident was caused by texting.  Reggie’s mother looks at the phone bill to see for herself.  

The trooper meets with the Attorney’s Office and discusses the case with Tony C. Baird. Baird has not been aware of texting and driving in a legal context as a major problem. He gets a subpoena for the phone records Chapter 14  Dr. Posner studies attention sciences. He looks at the time it takes the brain to reallocate resources when attention shifts.  Usually the responses are about one hundred milliseconds  Work at Princeton has proven that the brain will shift from “less relevant” information to anything more relevant.  Now the question that stems from this is “does a person who is paying attention to one thing, automatically ignore other things?”  Dr. Gazzaley thinks that the brain can be trained to multitask, which he has proved through video games that he has developed.  Another doctor proved that when you talk on the phone you make twice the number of errors as when you listen to music on the radio Chapter 15  Terryl graduates from USC and then starts working at a legal agency to care for a friend with Leukemia (April)  Terryl married a man named Alan and they moved to Utah and she became a victim’s advocate Chapter 16  This chapter discusses a doctor that studies why we are drawn to our devices and what makes us check them all the time. Why can we not help ourselves? Chapter 17  Jackie is forced to drive past the scene of the accident. Both of the daughters start playing World of Warcraft.  The younger daughter Megan walks herself down the aisle, and as soon as the marriage doesn’t work out, she starts spending house each day gaming.  Terryl and her family go to Mexico.  Her and her husband renovate a home in Logan and she reconnects with her biological father who she finds out tried to connect with her many times throughout her childhood but wasn’t allowed on the phone.  This solves one of the mysteries of her childhood Chapter 18  The trooper is now able to go through Reggie’s phone records.  In the application to gain access to these records, the trooper stated that he asked Reggie if he was texting while driving and he denied.  Leila and her lawyer Herm Olsen talk about the road conditions and the lack of a shoulder on the road. She hopes that it will be fixed.  Olsen tells Leila that the police should have talked to her but they didn’t. She contacts the trooper who tells her that he saw Reggie texting on the way to the hospital and how he is investigating the cell phone use. Chapter 19  Reggie begins to work as an assistant coach for his former high school team. 

The head coach, Greg Madson, thinks that Reggie is too consumed by the accident and he needs an escape.  Reggie starts dating Tasha Haber, who knows about the accident and is supportive.  The trooper finally gets the phone records and asks Scott Singleton who is a local investigator.  After several weeks of analyzing the data he realizes that there is a pattern of texts prior to the accident.  PROVES REGGIE WAS IN FACT TEXTING DURING THE ACCIDENT  He tests a theory by looking at a piece of paper while driving the route of the accident. He is astonished that someone can text and drive Chapter 20  A student at University of Kansas is working with a driving simulator and is trying to answer some questions o What is the value of social connection o How does it impact the lure of the phone? o When it comes to social connections, what is the value of immediate gratification  Another doctor continues to look at these questions  He has a theory that technology is like an addictive substance and he thinks that the information on a device is as irresistible to someone as alcohol is to an alcoholic.  He does an experiment where he tells students that they receive a text from a significant other, if they respond immediately they receive $5, if they wait an hour to respond they receive $100  The findings show that technology creates more of a compulsion than an addiction. Working with a driving simulator sending both driving directions and social information, the student participant remembers the social information better than driving information Chapter 21  Terryl’s daughter Jayne is a 6th grader who wants to become a doctor  After doing research on the powerful impact of TV on family relationships, she decides to remove the television from her home  TV plays to our attention system in extraordinary ways using light, sound and story, which explains why it’s still the most dominant form of media  TV is proven to slow language development  Watching fast paces shows as a child made children less able to follow directions and demonstrate patience  TV is important because it plays the top-down and bottom-up systems against each other.  Top-down is heavily invested and gets reinforced by the bottom up alerting you to what is happening in your life Chapter 22  Reggie starts to focus on a passage from the Book of Mormon and him and his family continue to work on getting him to go on the mission  Over the course of several months, Scott Singleton works to track down the person Reggie was texting on the morning of the accident 

He wants to know what Reggie has been texting about, what was distracting him and if there was a much clearer reason that the two men had been killed.  Scott got a subpoena on the number Reggie had been texting, Briana Bishop  Singleton and his partner Olsen met with Briana and her father. They talk about her relationship with Reggie and the role that texting plays into their communication  Then they ask her about texting him the morning of the accident  Could the accident have taken place because Reggie has been reading her text? Olsen asks  The logs from the phone company show pattern of multiple texts  Singleton had records of eleven texts between Reggie and Briana prior to the crash and thirteen texts after the crash, Briana claims she does not recall the content of the texts.  Reggie is informed that he will get to go on a mission (He is sooooo happy about this)  Singleton and Olsen interview Briana at work, she continues to claim that she doesn’t remember the texts and asks her if Reggie coached her for the interview and she denies it Chapter 23  On May of 2007, the governor of Washington signs the first state law banning texting while driving.  It carries a $100 fine and other states grapple whether to regulate cell phone use by drivers  Year after year, lobbyists from the major cell phone companies fight against the laws arguing that phones pose no different distractions than other tasks like eating, though texting is proven to be the number 1 distraction leading to accidents in California Chapter 24  An internet addiction expert who has a particularly intimate knowledge of addiction claims that what is happening right now with technology is what happened in the 70s with drugs  Most researchers don’t put texting or video games or internet use in the same category as addictive drugs  Many of them say it may be compelling, but not addictive  In 1998 a scientist observed the brains of 8 subjects playing video games. It showed that the level of dopamine doubled during game play. Chapter 25  In Mid-June 2007 Reggie is at the missionary training center  He has been named a leader and is feeling very good  His lawyer calls him which makes him nervous, but it is only to sign some papers  As Singleton begins to amass evidence, his partner sees that a potential case is developing. He has to develop the case along the lines of “criminal negligence” which is similar to one involving an individual who drove with failing breaks and killed someone.  Texting while driving is a new legal are and at this point there is no other case law into whether this is constituted negligent homicide or something else  Reggie didn’t know it was dangerous to text and drive  Reggie goes to Canada to begin his mission Chapter 26 

Jackie and Leila keep the investigation going but they are becoming frustrated Jackie calls Terryl and she begins to investigate o She sees that Reggie is not cooperating and that he was in fact texting while driving  Terryl notes that the victims’ families want negligent homicide charges to be filled  She notes that Reggie’s family has hired an attorney and that he is away on his mission  She also notes that Reggie lied to the police about texting  She makes a statement that Reggie has moved on with his life and that he hasn’t shown any remorse for the extensive damage he has done  Jackie and Leila meet Terryl and the prosecutors  Leila wants Reggie to be punished and the legal intern talks about the possible charges o Reckless driving o Reckless endangerment o Negligent homicide o Manslaughter  He thinks that if Reggie admits to the risk of texting while driving, they can get manslaughter charges  Since this will be very hard to convict, he settles of negligent homicide  A few days ago, 5 high school cheerleaders in the Rochester are passed away in a headon crash with a truck. Texting is suspected Chapter 27  The same way we crave food, we crave connection  When your phone dings, you want to find out who it is. You need too, because of your bottom-up survival system demands it  Research shows that heavy use of interactive media can, over time, reduce attention spans. We grow so accustomed to frequent bursts of stimulation that we have troubled feeling satisfied in their absence.  Every time your device pings, you get a hit of dopamine  If there is no incoming text, no stimulation, you start to feel bored and you will crave another hit  When young developing kids are exposed to these digital devices, their brains will be overloaded.  Deciding whether or not to focus on the road or the phone when you’re driving. If your brain is taxed, you may not even be able to make a clear-headed decision about what is the right thing to do. Chapter 28  Baird thinks Reggie is a decent young man but also thinks that he lied  Baird thinks about the time when he hit someone while waving at the postman when he was 16. He understands what it is like to be a young person in an accident  Terryl doesn’t agree.  The decision ends up falling on the county attorney Linton  Linton comes from a Mormon background but was abused at age 7  HE thought God deserted him and make his distrustful of religious institutions  

Linton decides what the charge against Reggie will be, He knows this will be a test case, a way to set a precedent Chapter 29  Reggie is a month into his mission when he heard that he must go home because the state filed charges against him  The charge is negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor  He calls his dad and he tells him that they know he was texting because they pulled his phone records  Reggie comes home and cannot eat, he starts to see a counselor  He is tested and he is diagnosed with severe anxiety  His counselor wants to give him medication, but Reggie refuses to take it  HE meets with his lawyer Benderson who knows the family wishes to fight the charges much more than Reggie Chapter 30  Leila goes to Reggie’s hearing  Linton looks at Reggie for the first time in person, sees he is an all-American kid  Megan (Leila’s daughter) glares at Reggie and thinks to herself that he killed her father  Reggie’s lawyer enters a plea of not guilty and requests a preliminary hearing  Linton is prepared for this trial  Benderson starts to develop his defense, they cannot prove Reggie was texting at the exact moment of the accident  He looks into investigative misconduct and mishandled initial interviews  Mary Shaw (Reggie’s mom) remains on her son’s side  She is interviewed by the trooper and get upset when they ask if she told Reggie not to cooperate with them Chapter 31  The state of Utah begins to look at distracted driving in 2008  One of the representatives almost gets into an accident while texting and driving  He decides that it must stop Chapter 32  Bunderson prepares for the defense  He wants to stop the prosecution from showing diagrams of the crash site and other evidence  He attacks the reliability of eyewitness Mr. Kaiserman  He also wants to block information on Reggie’s mission Chapter 33  Jackie reconnects with Gary Maloney who is a longtime family friend and was the best man at her wedding  They develop an attraction ;)  Jackie is scared of how she will provide for her family and Leila is also nervous about it Chapter 34  Reggie tries to balance everything in his life, home life, legal drama, his job dealing cars and also coaching  He gets angry with his mother and decides to move out 

He starts attending community college and works part-time Linton and Reggie’s lawyer argue over who will pay for Reggie to hire an expert witness o In the end, the state and Reggie will split the cost  Experts decide that Reggie could not have hydroplaned  The judge rules that the trooper can testify  Reggie finds out that his new girlfriend has read a newspaper article about his trial Chapter 35  On December 11, 2008, the trial takes place  Reggie listens to an expert testify about the increase of crash risk when using a device. Reggie finds the testimony revelatory o He thinks that since he was so distracted by his phone he doesn’t know what happened in the car and has no memory of it  Pretty much, the expert’s testimony makes it so that no matter what the defense says, Reggie’s texting killed Jim and Keith  Chapter 36 ...