Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
The Current

A Deadly Wandering: How texting and driving killed two rocket scientists

A recent study suggests teenagers rarely drink and drive because of the dangers. But they also know it's dangerous to text and drive -- and nevertheless seem unable to stop.
CBC Radio ·
Officers dressed as panhandlers approached drivers asking for money, then issued tickets if they caught the driver using their cellphones. (Paul Oka/Flickr cc)
The Current25:00A Deadly Wandering: The story of how a moment of texting and driving killed two rocket scientists - Sept 30, 2014

Reggie Shaw was texting with one hand and driving with the other when his car swerved, causing an accident that killed two Utah rocket scientists. Eight years ago, texting was so new the police didn't even know to ask about it. Now some neurologists have weighed in and say texting and driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving.

"All I can think about is their families. Those two men. While I was driving I decided that texting and driving was more important to me than those two men were to their families. An how selfish that was of me to make that decision to text and drive."  -ReggieShaw's story is featured in 'From One Second to the Next'


​Reggie Shaw is one of the people featured in Werner Herzog's documentary, From One Second to the Next. Reggie Shaw's few moments of inattention ended in tragedy and threw survivors' lives into chaos.

It's the subject of Matt Richtel's new book A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention. Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for The New York Times. 

In July, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released its 2013 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. It revealed that most teenagers know it is dangerous to text and drive. But they nevertheless still try to do both.

Robert Mann is a senior scientist with CAMH. He was in Toronto.

In Ontario, the provincial government is promising to bring in tougher new laws on texting and driving, when the legislature resumes sitting next month. Drivers caught texting could be slapped with $1000 dollars fines. That would make Ontario the toughest province on texting drivers.


Should texting drivers be hit harder in the wallet? Do you text and drive? 

Tweet us @thecurrentcbc. Or e-mail us through our website. Find us on Facebook. Call us toll-free at 1 877 287 7366. And as always if you missed anything on The Current, grab a podcast.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.

More from this episode