While it may sound silly, the colour of your car can make a difference in how likely you are to get in an accident. Although we often choose the colour car we want based on personal preference or looks, studies show that color and safety are closely related.
Before you buy your next car, consider picking a colour entirely for its safety rating and not for its coolness factor.
What is the Most Dangerous Car Color?
The most dangerous car colour by far is black, but grey and silver are a close second. If you decide to pick a dark colour for your vehicle, it’s in your best interest to compare car insurance rates for comprehensive coverage.
Since your crash rate is higher, you’ll need to save where you can. However, picking a safer colour may make up the difference if you’re a good driver.
What is the Safest Car Color?
The safest car colour is yellow, with white coming in second place. Although these car colours are harder to keep clean, you’ll likely save money on repair costs, painting, and dent removal.
What Car Colors are in the Most Amount of Accidents?
To minimize your risk of car accidents, avoid black, grey, blue, red, and green cars in descending order. Let’s take a look at why each colour is dangerous based on crash statistics.
Black Vehicles
A Reader’s Digest study found that black vehicles are 12% more likely to get in an accident than white vehicles. It’s expected that visibility plays a factor as to why black cars are considered unsafe. Black is difficult to see, especially at night, and often blends into its surroundings.
Silver and Grey Vehicles
Unless you’re driving a glossy silver vehicle, drivers in grey cars are 11% more likely to get in an accident. Visibility is still a significant reason for these high numbers.
However, if you do happen to drive a glossy grey vehicle, you’re actually 50% less likely to be a victim of a fatal crash.
Blue, Red and Green Vehicles
Driving a blue, red, and green vehicle puts you at a 7% higher risk of crashing. As always, visibility plays a role in why these colours are dangerous. While blue and green blend into the background, red is more likely to stand out.
However, most drivers have learned to block out red due to its prevalence in road signs, sirens, brake lights, and traffic lights, making red dangerous.
What Car Colors are in the Least Amount of Accidents?
White, yellow, orange, and gold are considered the safest cars to drive. If you decide to buy a new vehicle, we recommend sticking to the following colours for your personal safety.
White Vehicles
As the safest colour on the road, drivers are likely to experience 12% fewer accidents in a white car as opposed to a black vehicle. White cars provide a lot of contrast between the black road, making them easy to see. Drivers also associate white cars with cop cars subconsciously.
Yellow Vehicles
Yellow often takes the top spot as the safest vehicle on the road as winter driving conditions sometimes make white cars less safe. At all times, yellow vehicles are often the brightest colour on the road. In fact, the main reason why cabs are yellow is that this colour is easy to spot.
Orange and Gold Vehicles
Orange and gold are also easy to see regardless of weather conditions. Bright orange is exceptionally safe because it’s a rarer colour that doesn’t often appear on the road. Metallic gold shines and refracts light, making it easily distinguishable and an incredibly safe choice.
