Revision: January 6, 2010
NOTES:
- For background, see Parts 1 and 2, posted on this blog.
- Reader feedback and suggestions for improvements strongly encouraged! (tim@fromreidsdad.org).
- Model contract attached as a Word document, which may be downloaded and modified as necessary and advisable. I only ask that, if you use or forward this contract to others, you identify this blog as the source, so that the Part 1 and Part 2 background discussions are also available to the user. If you don’t have Word, a non-modifiable PDF document may be downloaded as an alternative.
- Part 4 (upcoming) will be a sample / filled-out model.
Click here to download the Word document
Click here to download the PDF document
Thanks!
Tim Hollister
Tim,
First and foremost, I’d like to express my deepest sympathies for the loss of your son, Reid. I think it’s very admirable that you’ve taken to the web in order to help prevent accidents like this from happening to other teenage drivers. I’ve read through your site and really enjoy your piece about the Model Teen Driving Contract. I wanted to inform you of a recent survey conducted by Allstate Insurance in which 1,000 parents of teenage drivers were polled in order to better understand their knowledge of the teen driving issue. Here is an article that contains the survery as well as additional information on the subject:
http://www.allstate.com/foundation/teen-safe-driving.aspx
I believe your readers will find the article and survey interesting and insightful. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Jacob
Advocate of Allstate Insurance
Thank you so much Tim, although I just started to explore this information on your site, I am sure this will be so beneficial. As the parent of a 17 yr. old boy, who incidentaly, just received his license yesterday, I am so afraid. Thank you for your courage and determination to put this all out there and for helping so many others. The pain of losing your son is unimaginable to me…I will educate myself and my two son’s, as a result of this touching story and wonderful resource.
My heart goes out to you because I can not imagine the pain of your loss. I have 2 children: 5 & 3, boy and girl. I want to tell you that you are a great example of courage and determination. I do agree that teens should not be given a drivers liscence, period! Like you said, their brains are just not ready yet. When we are teens we feel like we are in top of the world and that nothing is going to happen and we are risky and so on. I agree with Dr. John Rosemond that liscences should be issued after a child earns their HS diploma; meaning he is being responsible enough in that aspect of his life to be responsible enough to drive… that he/she have shown to be mature enough to carrie themselves in a matter where they will understand boundaries when it comes to make responsible desicions behind the wheel. We as parents need to be the adults here and LEAD ous children from a young age, MENTOR them when they get to the teen years and learn to say NO and mean it! Society, technology and a desire to be better than everybody else hinders logical thinking…convenience, yes is convenient not to have to drive your teen around but is more convenient to have him/her come back home safe… here is when learning to say NO takes place! thank you for your efforts and again, THANK YOU!