Author Jeffrey Zaslow Dies in Car Accident

Jeffrey Zaslow, who worked on the memoirs of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and airline pilot Capt. Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, died in a car accident in northern Michigan on Friday morning, the Associated Press reports. Zaslow was 53.

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Zaslow lost control of his car while driving on a snowy road after promoting his most recent book The Magic Room: A Story About Love We Wish for Our Daughters, which was published in December. Though the sheriff's department did not release the victim's name, Zaslow's literary agent confirmed his death, who was informed by the author's wife.

Zaslow collaborated with Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly to pen Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope. He also worked with Sullenberger for 2009's Highest Duty.

"Jeff was a beautiful writer, wonderful collaborator, loving husband, father and friend," said Sullenberger, who safely landed a plane in the Hudson River in 2009. "Our whole family loved him dearly and he will be sorely missed."

Co-author of 2008's The Last Lecture, Zaslow was a former Wall Street Journal columnist and advice columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times. Lecture, a New York Times bestseller, was based on a 2007 column that he had written, inspired by Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch's "last lecture." Pausch died of pancreatic cancer in 2008.

Zaslow was born Oct. 6, 1958 in Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.