Q.

With staggering statistics like people who are using their cell phones while driving are
four times more likely to crash, and people who are texting while driving are ten times
more likely to crash, distracted driving is a serious problem.

Why do you think people like Sarah in Left Neglected continue to drive distractedly?

A. This is a great question, one I’ve posed to my family and friends and readers on Facebook.
Here are some of the answers I heard:

• I’m so busy all day and have so many calls to return. Driving in my car is my only
“down time.”

• I think, “It will never happen to me.” It happens to someone else. Those statistics
represent people who aren’t good drivers. I’m a good driver.

• Driving is so automatic to me. It’s easy to multitask while I’m driving.

• I have a false sense of security because I’ve never experienced a car accident.

• I spend so much time commuting in the car. I can’t just lose all that time to doing
nothing. I need to be productive.

• I spend so much time typing and on the phone that those activities seems natural to
me, like breathing. And part of me probably thinks I’m too smart and capable to have
an accident because of my phone. Which I realize, of course, is utter nonsense.

• Our lives have become full of multi-tasking and distractions. This is just another place
where we multi-task. We have forgotten how to focus on one thing at a time.

• We have become a society of distracted living, not just distracted driving. How often
during the day are you truly present—not multi-tasking, checking E-mail, or catching
up on Voicemail?

• We are an instant gratification society. We can't wait for anything. We can’t wait ten
minutes to make a call when we could make it right now.

• Because everyone thinks they are smarter than the "average" driver.

• Feelings of invincibility.
Q. If you love someone, what’s the best way to talk to him or her about changing
dangerous behavior like texting while driving?

A. I think education is the key. Most people have only a vague understanding of how
dangerous it is to use a cell phone while driving. Make this understanding real and specific by
learning the facts–

• You are 4 times more likely to crash if you use your cell phone while driving.
• You are just as likely to crash using a hands-free versus a handheld phone
• One quarter of all car crashes are caused by “cell phone drivers.”
• Using a cell phone while driving impairs your reaction time to the equivalent of having
a .08% blood-alcohol count, which is legally drunk.
• You are 23 times more likely to crash if you text while driving.

And then layer a human story onto this knowledge. Make it emotional. See and hear some
the faces and lives those statistics represent by sharing a link to a video showing mothers and
fathers, daughters and sons talking about loved ones killed by a distracted driver. Then
imagine your own mother or father, daughter or son in place of the person you just watched.
That would do it for me.

Q. Where did you get the inspiration for including a distracted driving incident in the
book?

A. LEFT NEGLECTED is a book about a woman with Left Neglect, a bizarre brain
condition that causes her to ignore the left side of everything, including her own left arm and
leg. On a grander scale, it’s about what we pay attention to and what we ignore in ourselves, in
our relationships, and in the world around us. So it made perfect sense that the main
character, Sarah, would cause her own Neglect by searching for a number on her cell phone,
and hence neglecting to pay attention to the road, while driving.

I think distracted driving is the cultural epidemic of the 21st century. EVERYONE seems to
“talk and drive” or “text and drive” and think it’s okay. We don’t have enough time in the day
to do all that we need to accomplish, and we feel we can’t afford to “waste time” by simply just
driving when we’re in the car.

I can imagine that someday, hopefully soon, we’ll all say, “Remember when we used to talk on
cell phones and text while driving? Can you believe we did that?”

Q. What do you hope readers learn from your book?

A. I hope readers think of Sarah the next time they’re tempted to text or make a call while
driving—and choose to ignore their phones, or find a technological solution to help.
Q. Do you believe that technology can actually help people avoid the temptation to use
their cell phones while driving?

A. While technology is what brought this dangerous distraction into our cars, it can also be
the very thing that gets it out. Smart phone apps that hold all incoming and outgoing calls,
texts, and emails while you’re driving help to remove the temptation.

About Lisa Genova:

Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and
holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia
Advocacy, Support Network International and DementiaUSA and is an online columnist for
the National Alzheimer's association. She lives with her husband and two children in Cape
Cod. She is also the author of of the New York Times bestselling novel, Still Alice.

More About Left Neglected:

Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston
suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and
three children—Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus.

Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at
Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her
son's teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it's a
wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe.

A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life
like an air traffic controller. Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a
phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the
rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt.

A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah
relinquishes control to those around her, including her formerly absent mother. Without the
ability to even floss her own teeth, she struggles to find answers about her past and her
uncertain future.

Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real
destiny—her new, true life—may in fact lie far from the world of conference calls and
spreadsheets. And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close
within reach, if only she slows down long enough to notice.