Newswise
forgotten login
how to register

© Newswise.
All Rights Reserved.

Source: British Medical Journal   Released: Wed 17-Dec-2003, 06:20 ET 
Embargo expired: Thu 18-Dec-2003, 18:10 ET 
Printer-friendly Version 

Silver Cars Are Safest

Libraries
Medical News
 Keywords
SILVER CARS SAFE CRASH SERIOUS INJURY

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Description

Silver cars are less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than cars of other colours, finds a study.

BMJ 20-27 December 2003 edition

Car colour and risk of car crash injury: population based case control study BMJ Volume 327, pp 1455-6

Silver cars are less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than cars of other colours, finds a study in this week's Christmas issue of the BMJ.

Researchers in New Zealand examined the effect of car colour on the risk of a serious injury in over 1,000 drivers who took part in the Auckland car crash injury study between 1998 and 1999.

Factors that could affect the results, such as age and sex of driver, seat belt use, vehicle age, and road conditions, were taken into account.

They found a significant reduction (about 50%) in the risk of serious injury in silver cars compared with white cars.

There was a significantly increased risk of a serious injury in brown vehicles and the risks for black and green cars were also raised. The risk of a serious injury in yellow, grey, red, and blue cars was not significantly different from that in white cars.

Some limitations mean that the extent to which these results are applicable to other settings is open to question, say the authors. However, increasing the proportion of silver cars could be an effective strategy to reduce the burden of injury from car crashes.

Click here to view full paper:
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/december/ppr1455.pdf
After the embargo date, please use the following link:
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7429/1455