White, gold and yellow cars safest for drivers

Car buyers may want to consider more than just the model and make of vehicles when choosing their next car, after research found a car's colour can influence the chance of involvement in an accident.

The Journal of Safety Science deemed white, gold and yellow cars the safest to be in, whilst black cars are considered the most dangerous.

The study which was carried out over 20 years, concluded that motorists who owned a black car are 47 per cent more likely to be involved in road accidents.

According to researchers the reason is not down to the type of driver behind the wheel, but is due to the visibility of their vehicle. The research found that black, grey, silver, red and blue cars fail to stand out properly against the background of the road, the surrounding scenery and other traffic. 

Researchers from Monash University in Australia, analysed police data on 850,00 accidents, paying particular attention to information on the car, the time of day the accident happened and the type of accident that occurred.

After attempting to account for the possibility that drivers who take risks could be more attracted to certain colour cars, they concluded that black was the most accident prone, followed closely by grey and silver cars.

The study found that during daylight hours, black cars were 12 per cent more likely to be involved in a crash than a white vehicle. What's more, at dawn or dusk the figure rose to 47 per cent.

Researcher Dr Stuart Newstead was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: "Whilst campaigns to modify vehicle colour choice could alter the crash risk for the fleet, colour is a much less influential crash risk modifier than behavioural traits such as drink-driving and speeding."

Andrew Wilkinson, Evesham, VOLKSWAGEN CARAVELLE

Alison Pepler, Kent, Ford Focus ST3