Ten Years, Ten Questions: A Reflection on Safe Driving Advocacy
Friends: Today and tomorrow mark the tenth anniversary of my son Reid’s crash and passing, at age 17. Reid’s death launched me on a journey, as a parent, of advocacy for safer driving, both by teens and all drivers. Today, I publish an essay entitled, “Ten Years, Ten Questions: A Reflection of Safe Driving Advocacy.” I hope you will find it thought-provoking, and that you will forward or share it with everyone who might be interested. Thanks, Tim
For First-Time Visitors
For those visiting for the first time: Welcome! I hope you find the blog informative and user-friendly.
I have been posting articles since September 2009, and I started with what might be considered the most basic and important topics. So, if you want to start your reading with those initial posts, just click through the Archives for September – October 2009, and work forward from there.
Proceeds from advertising on this blog are paid to my son’s memorial fund, which supports day care tuition for infants and toddlers in the City of Hartford.
Not So Fast – honored by Governors Highway Safety Association, national public service award, September 2014
This blog – recognized by U. S. Department of Transportation’s 2010 public service award, the nation’s highest civilian award for traffic safety
Tim Hollister – designated Traffic Safety Hero of the Year by the AAA Club of Southern New England, 2012
Free Download
Teen/Parent Safe Teen Driving Contract Model
REACH YOUR TEENS!
Some of you have seen my “Open Letter” to new teen drivers that was published by AOL Autos on its Autoblog on July 22 (not coincidentally, Reid’s 25th birthday). We now have permission to reprint it. Feel free to use or forward anywhere this might be useful. My thanks again to Sharon Carty, Executive Editor of AOL Autos, for giving me the opportunity to prepare a stand-alone piece for teen drivers, to go with my blog materials and book, Not So Fast, which are directed to parents.
My Story
On December 2, 2006, my seventeen-year-old son, Reid, the driver, died in a one-car accident. On a three-lane Interstate highway that he probably never had driven before, on a dark night just after rain had stopped…
Tips
- Safer teen driving starts with informed, conservative decisions about whether teens get behind the wheel of a car in the first place. Teaching teens to operate a vehicle safely is Step 2…
Note: Photo of Tim speaking at Fitch High School, Groton, Connecticut, April 24, 2014 — by Tim Martin of the New London Day, reprinted with permission.