ROAD SAFETY: What’s the safest car you can drive?

What’s the safest car on the road? A Volvo, perhaps? Or a Mercedes? A BMW? No, a silver one. Researchers at Auckland University in New Zealand found that silver cars were the least likely to be involved in a serious crash that resulted in injury.

Ah ha, you might be saying (assuming you haven’t drifted off), that’s because they can be seen more easily. But the cars that were most likely to be involved in a serious accident were . . . white ones. In fact, a silver car was only half as likely to be in a nasty crash as a white one.

The next safest colour was brown, then green, then red. Conversely, the next most likely colour to be involved in a crash after white was yellow.

Perhaps it’s all down to the driver. A more cautious driver chooses silver, maybe, and the reckless driver goes for white. At least, it’s supportive evidence for the ‘white van man’ theory.

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 1455-6).