Morghan Lemmenes / Winonan

It only takes a few seconds to look at your phone while driving. It takes the same amount of time for your car to hit another, injuring or killing you or the other passengers.

When Reggie Shaw was 19 years old, he was texting his girlfriend while driving and crossed the line of a Utah highway, causing his car to hit another vehicle carrying two scientists, both were killed.

On the eight-year anniversary of the accident, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel released his “A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention,” which gives the emotional side of the incident paired with the science behind distracted driving, and shows Shaw’s journey of denial to acknowledgment.

According to the New York Times, “Richtel was the first person who brought this problem to national attention through various news articles about distracted driving.”

This book has been selected to be Winona State University’s Common Book for the 2016-17 academic year to help tie in with the university theme “Our Digital Humanity”. The Common Book Project was first established at Winona State 11 years ago in 2005. It helps bring a sense of community to the university, according to English professor Elizabeth Zold.

“We try to tie the book to the university theme as best we can,” Zold said.

She has been on the Common Book Project committee for four years and just took over as the director when Dr. Ann-Marie Dunbar went on sabbatical. Zold continued, “We wanted to find a book that dealt with technology or the digital age, something that could be tied to conversations people are already having at the university.”

However, she explained this is not the only reason why this book was chosen.

“We chose it because it had the story of a college-aged student who ends up killing two people because he was texting while driving,” Zold said.  “Unfortunately, I think a lot of students may know someone who has either been in an accident from texting, has either hurt someone or hurt themselves.”

“Rather than always being negative about [technology], I think we have to look at both things; so what’s good and where maybe we need to change some things,” Zold said.

This project is interdisciplinary and the book can be adopted by any department to be used for their curriculum.

Richtel will be interviewed by mass communications professor Cindy Killion in Haake Hall conference room Monday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m.

There will be a panel discussion to follow on distracted driving with Richtel, a professor of psychology, and a Minnesota state trooper at 4 p.m. in Stark Hall room 103.

To end the evening, Richtel will be giving a keynote in Harriet Johnson Auditorium at 7 p.m. titled “Confessions of a Phone Slave,” where he will be talking about the reliance we have on technology. This will be followed by a book signing where people can bring their own books or purchase one there.

-By Morghan Lemmenes