KVA

LONDON (Reuters) - Silver colored cars are less likely to be involved in a crash causing serious injuries, New Zealand scientists said Friday.

About 3,000 people die in road traffic accidents around the world each day but researchers at the University of Auckland said the risk of being injured in a silver car was less than in cars of other colors.

"Silver cars were about 50 percent less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than white cars," Sue Furness and her colleagues said in a report in The British Medical Journal.

The researchers studied the impact of car color on the risk of a serious injury in a study of more than 1,000 drivers in New Zealand between 1998 and 1999.

About half the drivers had been involved in a crash in which one or more occupants had been admitted to hospital or died while 571 had not had crashes and acted as a control group. After taking into account factors such as the age and sex of the driver, the use of seat belts, the age of the vehicle and the road conditions, color still had an impact.

The researchers said there was an increased risk of a serious injury in brown cars and the odds were also higher for black and green cars. They did not explain why car color has an influence but said previous research suggested that white or light-colored cars are less likely to be involved in a crash than cars of other colors.

"Increasing the proportion of silver cars could be an effective passive strategy to reduce the burden of injury from car crashes," Furness added.

..Go Silver! especially if you live in New Zealand!

brendanlim

Wow .. that's an odd finding.

*knocks on wood*

Sunseeker

Maybe a controversial point, but I reckon it's got to do with what type pf people choose what kind of colour. Perhaps the most careful people psycologically tend to prefer silver... maybe... !

BLK13X

lol

I've got a silver Soarer... and I had an accident last thursday

jtanoyo1

Quite an unfair survey I think. In korea 8 out of 10 cars I see on the street are white. Red, blue and other "brighter" colors are pretty much non-existent.

However, in Indonesia where I live, 8 out of 10 cars *sold* here are either black or silver. Something to do with having prestigious expensive cars as black (mafia style!) or silver (elegant).

It's just a matter of numbers. With more white cars (I am assuming) on the streets of New Zealand, it would be more than likely for them to be in an accident than any other cars. The testers could just pick silver (being the least favorite, or least bought car in NZ, I assume again) and compare its accident rate to white cars.

It's kinda like how the aviation industry said that air travel is actually safer than road because they compare accident rate to how many miles are travelled. It's of course an unfair comparison, there are only a few thousand planes travelling millions of miles at any given time, while there are millions of cars travelling only a few miles at any given time.

Ok, enough lessons in demographics hahaha.

bluelex

so silver is safer and easy 2 keep clean, why get a different color?

EGainer

also silver adds 50 hp

1QWKGS4

iTrader: (3)

Thats good to hear! ++++Considering silver has come along Way++++
I read a similar article about 5 years ago with statisical analysis on colors of cars resulting in accidents..
--Remember back in the 80's and Early 90's when Silver was this darker tone and that blended with the roads and clear coat wasn't as prevalant as it is now.. It did state that the brighter cars White and Yellow was less accident prone -simple because you can see them a mile away! And of course darker cars were more suseptable to accidents yet that dull silver at that time was amongst the highest ratio for accidents-- Kinda like that State Trooper --Light Grey-- where you don't see them until its too late.

I think with more companies wanting that Luxury appeal like Merecedes, BMW and Lexus ( I do remember before that silver was popular ONLY on the High-end cars). The making of brighter silver colors enhances the prone for accidents.. Hooray for the Trend..
10-15 years ago "silver" was the most unpoplar color due to it 'lack of "Luster" and of course lack of Clear coat..

Now everyone thinks 'Silver'-- Ofcourse whats wrong with Bright Blue or Yellow???..Nothing!

Silver does add an xtra 50 HP

bluelex

am i missing a joke where silver adds 50 hp... someone fill me in?

EGainer

lol i was just saying how cool it was, its kinda like those flame stickers that you can add to your car, they also add hp...

Sunseeker

Actually I recall a news article that said according to British insurance companies car colours didn't change stats on risk (if it did then they of course would charge more for the more "dangerous" colours! Like they do higher risk drivers.)

But the insurance companies did say that you had a higher chance fo being in an accident on a Friday then any other day!

KVA

Silver just makes a car THAT much better...and adds 50HP over stock

LS4fun

Wow...that should be my next mod. I'll gain 50 HP by painting my car silver! Cool.

Murph

Mine is silver, that explains why I have the fastest LS400 in my neighborhood. Those extra 50 ponies are surely the reason. I also seem to be impervious to accidents ( hope I just didn't jinx myself). I just seem to have close calls... I always hought it was the hand of God saving my skin everytime.

If I paint my car black, do I lose the extra HP kind of like Samson losing his hair?

Murph