One of our law partners here at Cook, Bradford & Levy, LLC, recently had the opportunity to buy a new car for his family. As with most families, safety was the number one priority when deciding what car to buy. While it was easy to find safety rating information addressing things like airbags, anti-lock braking systems, and traction control, he found very little information on what color was the safest in Colorado. Rather than keep the answer to this question a mystery, our Boulder accident lawyers have researched what color is the safest and hope that this article will be helpful to our clients and friends when it is your turn to buy your next car. And in case you’re wondering, our law partner her at the firm decided to go with white!
The Importance of Car Color on SafetyThe car insurance industry is one of the first places we looked to learn which car color is the safest. Speaking from experience, our Boulder accident attorneys would bet that car insurance companies have a treasure trove of data about car accidents of all types, and how the insurance industry addresses color would yield some important clues on what color is the least or most likely to be involved in an accident. Interestingly, however, according to a leading independent consumer website focusing on insurance, the color of your car does not impact your insurance rate. In other words, to the extent color affects safety, the insurance industry does not believe that there is a significant link between car color and the likelihood of being in a crash. If there was such a link, we think that insurance companies would charge more money for certain car colors.
The best information our Boulder accident lawyers found on the link between color and safety is a 2007 Australian study funded by a private and public partnership between several Australian governmental agencies and an influential automobile club. The study, carried out by Monash University in Melbourne, analyzed data from over 850,000 car and truck accidents involving either injury to the driver or occupant or significant property damage to the vehicle. Our Boulder accident attorneys were impressed by the methodology used, as things like commercial vehicles (the majority of which are white) and taxis were excluded from the study to improve its reliability.
One Study Found That Compared to any Other Color, White is the SafestThe authors of the Australian study concluded, after looking at data on 17 different car colors, that there is a statistically significant link between the color of your car and its likelihood of being involved in a crash. Specifically, the researchers concluded that in daylight hours – when no headlights or other illumination is being used – the safest car color is white, and that white cars are about 10% less likely to be in a crash compared to other colors. Conversely, the study showed that relative to white there is an increased crash risk there is an increased crash risk for the colors black, red, silver, blue, green and gray, which is attributed to these colors are lower on the visibility index. The results of the study can be found here.
As with most scientific study, it is helpful to look at other peer reviewed data to see whether other conclusions have been reached. Our Boulder accident lawyers found one reference to a New Zealand study in which researchers apparently agreed with the Monash University study’s conclusions, except that silver, not white, was the safest car color. Unfortunately, our team was unable to locate that particular study online and therefore is unable to compare its methodology with the Australian research.
Other Benefits of Car ColorWhat car color you chose can impact other things besides safety, including resale value when the time comes for you to sell your car. According to a CBSnews.com article in August of 2016, cars with the lowest depreciation were orange and yellow in color, and the depreciation of white, silver, and black cars were all about average. However, gold cars had a significantly greater depreciation in resale value and it may be a color to avoid if resale value is important to you.
We hope that this article has been helpful to those seeking answers to the question “what is the safest car color?” At Cook, Bradford & Levy, LLC, we are Boulder accident attorneys who seek to understand all relevant factors that might impact our clients who have been victims of car accidents. If you or a loved one was in a car accident in Boulder, we invite you to call us today at 303-543-1000 for a free and confidential consultation about your case.