Vehicle Colour and Accident Risk

There’s an interesting article we came across written by Gary Grant about the relationship between vehicle colour and accident risk.  It reads in part:

Does the Colour of Your Car Make you More Likely to be Involved in an Accident?

In 2007 a paper from Monash University in Australia found that white was the safest colour and that other colours which were “lower on the visibility index and included black, blue, grey, green, red and silver”

We’ve all met him, the armchair automotive expert at a social gathering who delights in enlightening not-so-interested listeners with his knowledge of the subject he is most passionate about. He will tell you what car you should buy and which you shouldn’t, rhyming off bits of useless info like horsepower figures and tire sizes. Maybe someone will comment that sports cars are bad business, but the expert will tell them that the biggest car to stay away from is anything red.

You see, for years, the oft-quoted but rarely identified “they” have been telling our party guest that red cars are more likely to be in a crash or be driven recklessly and so insurance companies charge more to insure them. Is there any truth to his narrative?

A quick poke around the internet shows dozens of stories which claim to have the answer but if one looks closely, they all refer back to the same two sources.

And the world’s favourite car colour is …

Transport Canada media representative, Pierre Manoni, says that vehicle colour is not considered a factor in collisions and as such, the department does not compile statistics related to vehicle colour in crashes.

“People used to say red cars are insured differently than others” says Insurance Bureau of Canada Director of Media and Digital communications Steve Kee. But that is “simply not true” says Kee. The IBC has even gone so far as to ensure consumers that vehicle colour does not impact premiums.

Click Here to read the full article.