Silver the safest car colour

By STUART DYE

Silver is the safest colour for cars, brown, black and green are the most dangerous, a New Zealand study in the British Medical Journal shows.

The research assessed the effect of car colours on the risk of serious injury in more than 1000 Auckland drivers between 1998-99.

All cases analysed involved collisions where one or more occupants of the car were taken to hospital or died.

Silver cars, thanks to their high visibility, offered a major reduction - about 50 per cent - in the risk of serious injury compared with white cars.

The risk factor for white, the commonest colour for New Zealand cars, was about the same as for yellow, grey, red and blue, but darker colours were the least safe.

The study concludes that increasing the proportion of silver cars could be an effective strategy to reduce the burden of injury from car crashes.

The University of Auckland study took into account the age, sex and educational level of the driver, and whether they had been using drugs or alcohol or had worn a seatbelt.