Hollister ’78 Writes Parental Guide on Teaching a Teen to Drive

Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving (Chicago Review Press) by Tim Hollister ’78 is an informative and empowering guide to help parents understand the causes of teen crashes and head them off each time before their teens get behind the wheel.

Most of the information available to parents of teen drivers acknowledges that driving is risky, and then advises parents that their obligation is to teach their teens how to operate a vehicle. However, missing from most resources are explanations of why teen driving is so dangerous and specific, proactive steps that parents can take day-by-day, each time a teen driver gets behind the wheel, to counteract the situations that most often lead to crashes. This authoritative book provides advice to parents, guardians, and other adults who supervise teen drivers about the critical decisions that must be made before a teen drives.

Hollister’s guide tackles several hot-button issues—such as texting and distracted driving; parenting attitudes (conscious and unconscious); and teen impairment and fatigue—and includes a combination of topics not found in other teen driving guides, such as how brain development affects driving, how teen driver laws work and why Driver’s Ed does not produce safe drivers, how to negotiate a teen driving agreement how and when to say “No,” and why it’s imperative for parents to evaluate their teen driver on every car trip before handing over the keys.

Tim Hollister’s 17-year- old son Reid died in a one-car crash on an interstate highway in central Connecticut in 2006. A year later, Hollister served on a task force charged with reexamining the state’s teen driver law. That task force led the state in 2008 to transform its law from one of the most lenient in the nation to one of the strictest. Hollister practices land use and environmental law and is the recipient of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Public Service Award.

Author web site

From Reid’s Dad: A Blog for Parents of Teen Drivers