Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving

Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving

Most driving literature for parents focuses on how to teach a teen to drive, without explaining why teen driving is so dangerous in the first place or giving parents a plan to preempt the hazards teens face. By contrast, Not So Fast empowers and guides parents to understand the causes and situations that most often lead to teen crashes and to take specific, proactive steps— before and each time a teen driver gets behind the wheel —to counteract them. This authoritative guide tackles 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 - Why driver’s ed does not produce safe drivers - How and why to prepare a “flight plan” for each drive before handing over the keys - How and when to say no Proceeds from the sale of this book support the Reid Samuel Hollister Memorial Fund, which subsidizes infant and toddler education in greater Hartford, Connecticut, and worthy traffic safety causes. "This concise, practical, and potentially life-saving book should be required reading for every parent before their teen gets behind the wheel." — Publishers Weekly "This is an interesting addition to an underrepresented topic; recommended for all libraries." — Library Journal Tim Hollister became a national authority and spokesperson for safer teen driving after losing his 17-year-old son Reid in a car crash in 2006. He served on a Connecticut state task force that overhauled his state’s teen driving laws; is the creator of From Reid’s Dad , a national blog for parents of teen drivers; and regularly makes appearances on regional television and radio. He was awarded the 2012 AAA Southern New England Traffic Safety Hero of the Year Award as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation National Public Service Award, the nation’s highest civilian award for traffic safety.  Sandy Spavone is the executive director for National Organizations for Youth Safety, a coalition of national organizations that promote youth empowerment and leadership and work to build partnerships that save lives, prevent injuries, and enhance safe and healthy lifestyles among all youth. Not So Fast Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving By Tim Hollister Chicago Review Press Incorporated Copyright © 2013 Tim Hollister All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61374-872-5 Contents Foreword by Sandy Spavone, Executive Director, National Organizations for Youth Safety, Author's Note, Introduction: "Not So Fast, Young Man/Lady", 1 My Story, 2 Why There Is No Such Thing as a Safe Teen Driver, 3 Baseline Dangers and Higher Risk Factors, 4 "[My] Kid Is Very Responsible!", 5 What Driver's Ed Isn't, 6 The ABCs of GDL (Graduated Driver Licensing), 7 When Should a Teen Start Driving?, 8 Acting Like an Air Traffic Controller, 9 Negotiating and Enforcing a Teen Driving Agreement, 10 The Difference Between Purposeful Driving and Joyriding, 11 Getting a Teen to Acknowledge the Risks, 12 The Ceremony of the Keys, 13 The Unappreciated Danger of Passengers, Even Siblings, 14 Managing Curfews, 15 Supervising the Brand-New Driver, 16 Traffic Tickets as a Teaching Moment, 17 Car Buying and Sharing, and Saving on Gas, 18 Distracted Driving: Texting, "Connected Cars," GPS, and Headphones, 19 Impaired Driving: Alcohol, Drugs, and Fatigue, 20 What Schools Can Do, 21 Blind Zones, 22 Vehicle Identification Stickers, 23 Simulators and High-Performance Driving Schools, 24 Non-English-Speaking and Single Parent Households, 25 Supervising Other People's Teens, 26 In Summary: Tips from Reid's Dad, www.fromreidsdad.org, Afterword: A Plea to Parents, Teen Driving Resources, Model Teen Driving Agreement, Acknowledgments, Index, CHAPTER 1 My Story During 2006, I was a regular, mainstream parent of a teen driver. I occasionally worried about my son's safety, but I was generally confident that the training I had given him — what state law required and the literature suggested — was sufficient. On December 2, 2006, everything changed. My seventeen-year-old son Reid died in a one-car crash. Driving on a three-lane interstate highway that he probably had never driven before, on a dark night just after rain had stopped, and apparently traveling above the speed limit, he went too far into a curve before turning, then overcorrected, and went into a spin. While the physics of the moment could have resulted in any number of trajectories, his car hit the point of a guardrail precisely at the middle of the driver's-side door, which crushed the left side of his chest. Had the impact occurred eighteen inches forward or back, he would have survived. No alcohol, no drugs, no cell phone; his passengers were legal and he was well within the state's curfew for teen drivers. He died from speed, an unfamiliar road, a