Car Color & Crash Risk

Studies show that some car colors increase the risk of being involved in a car accident. However, these studies disagree on exactly which colors affect crash risk.

Color might also play a smaller role than other factors like road and weather conditions, traffic congestion, and most importantly, driver behaviors. Although the color you pick for your car might have a small influence on your crash risk, driving carefully and watching out for other drivers will do far more to affect your collision risk.

Contact our law firm at (817) 294-1900 to schedule your free initial consultation with a Fort Worth attorney.

How Anderson Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Car Accident in Fort Worth, Texas

How Anderson Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Car Accident in Fort Worth, Texas

Anderson Injury Lawyers was founded in 2007 to help accident victims in Fort Worth, TX recover compensation from the negligent parties who injured them. Since then, the firm’s Fort Worth car wreck attorneys have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients.

If you hire our law office for help after a car accident, you can expect us to: 

  • Investigate the collision to determine why it happened and who is liable 
  • Gather evidence proving each element of your claim 
  • Negotiate on your behalf to ensure that you take home fair compensation
  • Handle your case from start to finish, including arguing on your behalf at trial if necessary 

Car accident injuries can leave you with substantial economic and non-economic losses. To speak with an experienced car crash lawyer about the compensation you can get for your injuries, contact Anderson Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.

How Often Are Fort Worth Car Crashes Affected by Car Color?

Texas doesn’t track the colors of cars involved in collisions, but it does release statistics about the conditions during an accident that might relate to car color.

According to Texas’s Crash Records Information System (CRIS), Fort Worth had 17,547 vehicle collisions in 2021. These involved personal vehicles, commercial trucks, and motorcycles. This figure excluded pedestrian, bicycle, and single-vehicle accidents.

Of these vehicle collisions, 71% happened during the day. Color presumably had little to no effect on the crash risk for these accidents, but it might have made it more difficult for the drivers to spot each other in the remaining 29%.

The accidents in the latter group occurred during dusk, night, or dawn when the lighting was poor, meaning drivers likely relied more on the color contrast between the car and its surrounding environment.

CRIS also reported that 79% of car accidents in Fort Worth happened in clear conditions, while only 21% happened in cloudy, rainy, or foggy conditions. During times of limited visibility, car color might affect a driver’s ability to spot other vehicles.

According to CRIS, 55% of car accidents in Fort Worth in 2021 happened in daylight during clear weather, meaning car color could play a part in as many as 45% of car accidents.

Overview of Car Color and Crash Risk in Fort Worth, Texas

Two studies conducted in Auckland, New Zealand, and New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, have examined the effects of car color on crash risk. Both used statistical tools to try to isolate car color from other factors, including the age of the driver, the use of alcohol or drugs, and the light conditions during the crash.

Oddly, these studies reached contradictory conclusions.

Colors that Affect Crash Risk

In the Auckland study, researchers found that silver and gray cars had a significantly lower risk of car crashes, while black, brown, and green had a significantly higher risk of an accident.

In the Australian study, analysts found a statistically significant increase in crash risk for gray, silver, red, green, and blue cars. They determined that white was the safest color.

Colors that Don’t Affect Crash Risk

The Auckland study found that white, yellow, blue, and red had little or no effect on crash risk. Meanwhile, the Australian study found that black, brown, cream, fawn, gold, maroon, mauve, orange, pink, purple, and yellow did not affect crash risk.

The two studies disagree completely on how silver and gray affect crash risk, with one finding them to be the safest and the other proclaiming them the most dangerous. They also disagreed on whether red, blue, black, and brown affected crash risk.

The only colors the studies agreed on were white, yellow, and green, which had a relatively good record for safety. Thus, you should choose a white, yellow, or green car if you want to base your choice on safety.

How Colors Might Cause Crashes

Colors likely affect crashes involving inattentive drivers. Distracted drivers might miss spotting cars of certain colors, leading to rear-end crashes. These collisions rarely cause fatal injuries but can result in serious head, neck, and back injuries.

Color might also influence whether drivers proceed without making sure their path is clear. These sorts of accidents can cause much more serious injuries, particularly if they involve side-impact or angle collisions.

Effects of Color on Crash Liability

Vehicle color is not an excuse for inattentive driving. In other words, a driver has a legal duty to look for vehicles of all kinds — the at-fault driver cannot shift blame for an accident to the victims because of the colors of their cars.

Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Fort Worth Car Wreck Attorneys If You’ve Been Injured in a Collision

Car accidents can happen regardless of the color of the vehicles involved. Contact Anderson Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss the compensation you can seek for your car accident injuries.

We handle all types of car accident cases, including:

Additional Fort Worth Car Accident Resources