Silver cars are the safest on the road.

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." In their study, Furness and her colleagues took into account the engine size, make and age of the car, as well the sex, age, socioeconomic 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. (Author/publisher)