Not So Fast a Must Read for Parents of Soon-To-Be Teen Drivers

Imagine being told that your teenage son died in a car crash.  Tim Hollister got that news on December 2, 2006.  His 17-year-old son, Reid, the driver, died in a one-car crash on a three-lane interstate highway that, Tim said, “he probably never had driven before, on a dark night just after it  had stopped raining.”  Speed, coupled with the roadway’s geometry and Reid’s inexperience, resulted in the car hitting a guardrail precisely at the middle of the driver’s side door crushing the left-side of his chest. 

As the parent of a teen who is Reid’s age, my heart breaks for Tim and his family.  I can’t imagine the terrible void they feel each and every day.  Tim has channeled that loss into writing and speaking about a topic that’s largely under-addressed in the material available to the parents of teen drivers -- what they can do before their teen gets behind the wheel to pre-empt the most dangerous situations.

In his highly acclaimed and award-winning blog, which first appeared in 2009, Tim focuses on topics ranging from the teenage brain and the impact of teen passengers on the likelihood of a crash, to when is a teen ready to drive and the effectiveness of graduated driver licensing (GDL).   Now he’s compiled these and many other subjects into a new book entitled, Not So Fast:  Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving, scheduled for release this September. 

I had the privilege of reading the first draft of Tim’s book in 2012.  Armed with a degree in English and nearly three decades of traffic safety experience, I offered Tim a bit of constructive criticism that he graciously accepted.  But when I took my traffic safety/writer’s hat off and read the revised version of the book as a parent, I found it highly instructive.  I’d go so far as to say that it’s the teen driving version of  What to Expect When You’re Expecting, a book I’m betting many teens’ parents (at least their moms, including yours truly) read from cover to cover.   

I want to stress that Not So Fast doesn’t tell parents how to teach their teens to drive.  Instead it walks parents through the critical decisions we need to make before allowing our teens to get behind the wheel.  Tim’s message is simple and straight-forward --  supervision before driving is every bit as important to lowering crash rates as teaching teens how to turn at a busy intersection.   

I was particularly taken by the section which discusses how to recognize the difference between “purposeful” and “recreational” driving.  Tim writes, “if John or Sue has a reason to drive from Point A to Point B, a prescribed route, an estimated time of arrival, and a consequence for not arriving on time, the likelihood of a crash is relatively low.  But when teens drive for the sake of driving, without a particular destination, reason, planed route, or arrival time, trouble starts.”   

The book is loaded with this other and other critical information that every parent needs to know.  Tim isn’t preachy, he simply lays out the issues and offers his insight and advice based on what he has learned through experience and a thorough review of the research.  While I was honored to read and critique the book, perhaps the best review comes from internationally recognized teen safe driving expert, Allan Williams.  The former chief scientist for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety writes, “I strongly recommend Not So Fast as evidence-based sensible advice to parents seeking to make informed decisions as their teens become drivers.  This is a highly readable and important guide.” 

I encourage every parent of a soon-to-be-driving teen to read Tim’s book.  Not only will you learn much that will help your teen as he prepares to begin his most dangerous driving years, but the proceeds benefit charity.  Sales support the Reid Samuel Hollister Memorial Fund, which subsidizes infant and toddler education in greater Hartford, Connecticut and worthy traffic safety causes.