In the church hall where Tim Hollister’s friends gathered after his teenage son, Reid, was killed in a car crash in 2006, Hollister greeted friends once again Monday night, this time to mark the launch of a new book on teen driving, “Not So Fast.”
The paperback is the byproduct of a nationally recognized blog on teen driving, “From Reid’s Dad,” that Hollister began after serving on a task force whose work resulted in an overhaul of Connecticut’s motor vehicle laws concerning teens in 2008.
“The new laws were too late but not too little,” Hollister writes of the effort he put into the task force after his son’s death.
Having played a role in changing Connecticut laws, Hollister is trying to change how we guide our children through one of the scariest times in the life of every parent – those first months and years when our teens drive.
Hollister, a prominent land-use attorney from West Hartford who is a friend, said the book is the synthesis of what he learned about teens, parenting and driving since Reid’s death. It’s geared to get parents more involved before teens get behind the wheel.
Allan F. Williams, the former chief scientist for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, calls it “evidence-based sensible advice to parents seeking to make informed decisions as their teens become drivers.”