- LONDON (Reuters) - Silver
colored cars are less likely to be involved in a crash causing serious
injuries, New Zealand scientists said Friday.
-
- About 3,000 people die in road traffic accidents around
the world each day but researchers at the University of Auckland said the
risk of being injured in a silver car was less than in cars of other colors.
-
- "Silver cars were about 50 percent less likely to
be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than white cars,"
Sue Furness and her colleagues said in a report in The British Medical
Journal.
-
- The researchers studied the impact of car color on the
risk of a serious injury in a study of more than 1,000 drivers in New Zealand
between 1998 and 1999.
-
- About half the drivers had been involved in a crash in
which one or more occupants had been admitted to hospital or died while
571 had not had crashes and acted as a control group.
-
- After taking into account factors such as the age and
sex of the driver, the use of seat belts, the age of the vehicle and the
road conditions, color still had an impact.
-
- The researchers said there was an increased risk of a
serious injury in brown cars and the odds were also higher for black and
green cars.
-
- They did not explain why car color has an influence but
said previous research suggested that white or light-colored cars are less
likely to be involved in a crash than cars of other colors.
-
- "Increasing the proportion of silver cars could
be an effective passive strategy to reduce the burden of injury from car
crashes," Furness added.
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