[satish_appasani]

Silver cars are the safest on the road
Going for a spin in a silver vehicle is much safer than any other colour of car - black, brown and green cars are the most dangerous
Silver cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash than cars of other colours, suggests a new study of over 1000 cars.

People driving in silver cars were 50 per cent less likely to suffer serious injury in a crash compared with drivers of white cars, the research in New Zealand found.

White, yellow, grey, red and blue cars carried about the same risk of injury. But those taking to the roads in black, brown or green cars were twice as likely to suffer a crash with serious injury.

Sue Furness, at the University of Auckland, led the study but says the team does not know why silver cars appear safer. "We think it may be due to a combination of light colour and high reflectivity," she speculates.

She suggests that increasing the proportion of silver cars on the road might provide a "passive strategy" to cut car crash injuries.

"If there's proof that certain colours are safer and easier to see in all road conditions that might be useful to people in terms of purchasing a car," says Roger Vincent, of the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. But he adds: "A lot of people will buy things purely on fashion."


Engine size


In their study, Furness and her colleagues took into account the engine size, make and age of the car, as well the sex, age, socio-economic status and ethnicity of the drivers. They also controlled for road conditions and ambient light conditions.

But Vincent says other factors could be important, such as the way people view different colours, how many miles the car has on the clock and the background being driven against.

The data was gathered from reports of road crashes in the Auckland area between 1998 and 1999. Silver cars made up about 11 per cent of the fleet analysed and were the fourth most popular car colour after white, blue and red.

Metallic finish cars, such as silver ones, are more expensive, but Furness does not believe this is an important factor. "From these controlled data it seems unlikely that the explanation for silver cars being associated with a lower risk of car crash injury is related to the price or 'quality' of the vehicle," she told New Scientist.

COurtesy:

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopi....%20mind

[shravan316]

Thats interesting piece of news......

[Stratos]

Had read abt that colour thing somwhere in Overdrive mag i think!!!!

[Pankaj9]

i dont really know much about this but i had read somewhere that people driving green colour cars are safe drivers. Red colour represents outgoing and fun loving drivers and black is for drivers who show authority on the road. ( or something - i am a bit rusted in memory over this ):(
dont remember what was said for white.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]dont remember what was said for white

POLITICIANS

cheers

[DriverR]

What is the best/safest colour for night/dim-light conditions?

From my experience, I normally take relatively more time to detect a black or silver-grey colour car, as compared to blue/green coloured cars. The blue/green coulured cars too are more distinct compared to the black or silver grey cars.

I know there are lots of others factors involved such as background lighting, street-lighting, highway and city roads, headlights reflection, etc. But in general this has been my observation. I would be keen in knowing your opinions on which are the safer colours for night time driving..... I'll then get a car of that colour!

[Rehaan]

I remember reading an article that said that yellow cars are 10% less likely to have an accident - apparently they compiled this statistic from research done with a large insurance company.

cya
R

[praveen_v]

I feel that a white colour car is easily spotted in the night.

[sukiwa]

Dark colours/dark shades like black, navy blue are difficult to spot in dim lighting conditions especially when vehicle is standstill. Lighter colours/shades should be preferred.
But, responsiveness of eyes to different colours varies from person to person.

[Surprise]

I heard that in general red and black color cars leads the chart in accidents. Dont have any solid proof, but my guess is that these are sports colors and chances are high that these colored cars will be driven faster (relate the color choice with buyers attitude) in comparison increasing the chances of accident

[srishiva]

White and then yellow. Thats the reason Ambulance is white, school buses are yellow.

[theMAG]

Thread merged with existing topic.

[androdev]

this could just mean silver color vehicles are driven carefully ;-)

[vasudeva]

As of now, there is no irrefutable evidence of thee higher safety of any colour or not. But the thread originator has done a good service by pointing out which colours are likely to be safer at night. More than colour, it is driving habits that cause crashes.

The Furness, etc study quoted did find that silver cars were about half as likely to be involved in crashes resulting in serious injury as white cars, with brown, black, and green cars being roughly twice as likely as white cars to be involved in serious injury crashes. However, the author did note that there is no snow in the winter in Auckland, New Zealand, and thus that the results might not be generalizable to regions differing in climate.

One Spanish study by Lardelli-Claret found that light-colored (i.e. white or yellow) cars were slightly less likely to be `passively involved' in crashes. The effect was observed to be strongest during daylight on open roads under less-than-ideal weather conditions. Black cars had the worst record for passive involvement in crashes. The authors have noted several weaknesses of the study.

[vnabhi]

Silver colour cars are the most difficult to spot during sunrise and sunset, esp when the sun is behind the silver car. Famous Hollywood actor James Dean died in a silver coloured car at an intersection in twilight time, with a head on collision with another car that allegedly did not see his car.