Black Car

A team from the Monash University in Australia has revealed that black cars are close to 50% more likely to be involved in accidents. The study published in the Safety Science journal, which was reported to have comprised of data collected over a period of 20 years has shown that a black car is the most dangerous colour (or non-colour, since its black). It was also concluded that the other, somewhat dangerous coloured cars to drive around in are grey, silver, red and blue coloured cars. This is as the cars in this colours somehow blends in better with the background or the road, scenery or other cars. In short, a car with the colours mentioned above do not stand out in a sea of traffic and scenery.

The researchers looked through as many as 850,000 accident date from the police for information on the car, the time of the accident and the type of accident. They somehow did not look at commercial vehicles, like taxis and delivery vans, even though I somehow think that these vehicles usually have a higher change of getting involved in an accident as they ply the streets more than other people do.

Anyway, the researchers, who have basically dedicated their lives to reviewing accident after accident have found that during daylight, black cars were approximately 12% more likely to meet up with an accident over white vehicles and if it goes dark, throughout dusk till dawn the chances of a black car meeting with an accident rose to 47%.

So we now know that a black car is the most susceptible to getting involved in accidents. What are the safest colours to drive around in then? According to the researchers, white, gold and yellow cars are the safest, but they also mentioned that orange may be even safer than white cars. This fact may be true as some dive watches have bright orange dials and harp on this fact.

Of course, the study goes on to say that while their findings suggest that if people buy less black cars there could be less accidents, it may not be entirely true as they then say that if everyone bought white cars this would then result in less colour contrast on the roads resulting in the vehicles really blending into one another. Imagine every car being white or yellow, now that won't do too. They go on and state that colour is a much less influential crash risk modifier than behavioural traits such as drink-driving, and speeding. They also then conclude that 'It may be possible that simple solutions such as the use of daytime running lights or headlights could effectively negate the elevated risks of higher risk vehicle colours.'; which is what Audi, Porsche, Mercedes and almost all the big names have started using.