When buying a car, the color factor is often considered for visual purposes, but according to statistics, it should also be considered for safety purposes. Because there may be a link between colors and security.
For example, a vehicle yellow being in color increases its visibility in traffic; That’s why taxis and school buses are preferred in this color in most parts of the world. So it’s true that colors have an impact on drivers.
Of course, besides this effect, the environment in which the car is driven is also very important. E.g if the weather is cloudy soft colors are more risky, the risk factor will decrease as light colored vehicles will be more visible at night.
So, according to statistics, which color cars cause the most accidents? Is the myth true that red cars have more accidents?
As white vehicles can be noticed more easily at night, the risk of an accident decreases, while the risk of dark colored vehicles increases. Red cars are also perceived as close to black at night. In rainy or foggy weather, yellow vehicles are more easily noticed.
Although studies in different regions differ, it has been determined that silver gray vehicles are less involved in accidents that result in injury. Silver gray vehicles are 50% luckier than white colored vehicles.
In daylight, black-colored vehicles are 12% less likely to be involved in a damaged accident than white-colored vehicles.
Grays are 11% more advantageous, silver grays 10%, red and blues 7% more advantageous. The times when black vehicles are more risky are during the dark hours. Even at twilight hours such as sunrise and sunset, black vehicles carry a 47% higher risk than white ones. Red and silver gray vehicles are 8% more risky at night compared to white vehicles.
According to a study conducted at Monash University in Australia, black vehicles are more risky.
According to the 850 thousand accidents examined, the safest colors are white and yellow, while the riskiest colors are gray, silver, blue and red. According to experts, the visibility of vehicles of this color decreases due to the surrounding colors, which increases the accident rate. Black vehicles at night cause 47% more accidents.
There is also a study conducted in Turkey on the subject.
It was determined that only 10% of the approximately 7,000 accidents investigated by Gaziantep Police were red vehicles. White colored vehicles carry the highest risk with a rate of 42.7%.
The ratio distribution of other colors is as follows:
- Blue: 9.4
- Green: 3.9
- Beige: 3.6
- Black: 3.2
- Yellow: 2.5
- Navy: 1.5
- Bordeaux: 1.5
- Brown: 0.4
- Other: 2.7
In summary, different studies may yield slightly different results. While black vehicles are dangerous at night, white vehicles can be more dangerous during the day. However, it can be said that the share of colors among the causes of accidents is very small.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4