College Age Autoists Are Least Safe of All Highway Drivers, Claims De Silva

"Youthful operators unquestionably have the greatest accident incidence," says Dr. Harry R. DeSilva, Lecturer in Psychology, in "Age and Highway Accidents," an article in December's "Scientific Monthly."

According to his investigations both the youthful driver in his 'teens and twenties and the elderly driver in the fifties are less safe than the adult in his thirties and forties. Middle-aged drivers are the safest on the road.

"They drive more rapidly"

"They drive more rapidly and travel farther than older drivers," says DeSilva about youth. "Having less experience and less responsibilities (there are fewer owners and less married men in the younger age group) they undoubtedly drive with less restraint and are more interested in getting places in a hurry," he continues.

To remedy the situation DeSilva proposes a driver clinic for elderly persons. He stresses stricter training and more difficult tests in automobile handling for youth.

Most Drunks in Forties

"There is also," DeSilva states, "not much difference in the incidence of alcoholism between the man in his forties and the man in his twenties and thirties. The reason more drunken drivers in their forties are detected is that more persons drink in their forties than at any other age."