Many factors can influence a car accident. In 94% of cases, the critical factor in a car crash involves driver behavior. Adverse environmental conditions that create dangerous roads (2%) and mechanical problems (2%) can also contribute to crashes.
Research has suggested that car color might also play a role in causing crashes. A lawyer from Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys can assess the evidence of a connection between car color and crash risk to ensure the blame stays on the at-fault driver.
Contact our law firm at (727) 933-0015 to schedule a free initial consultation if you’ve been injured in a collision in St. Petersburg, FL.
How Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys Can Help After a Car Accident in St. Petersburg, FL
Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys was founded in 2018 to help accident victims in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm’s attorneys have over 25 years of combined legal experience fighting for the rights of injured clients.
If you get injured in a crash, our St. Petersburg car accident lawyers can provide:
- A free evaluation of the merits of your claim to advise you about your options
- Compassionate representation to fight for the compensation you need for your health
- Aggressive and experienced litigators to take your case to court if it does not settle
Proving the cause of a car accident can require skill and legal knowledge. Contact Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys to discuss the compensation you can pursue for your injuries.
How Many Crashes Could Result From Car Color?
Anecdotally, you can infer that the link between car color and crash risk comes from visibility. Highly visible cars would logically have a lower crash risk than low-visibility cars.
Science has not proven this theory. But if it were true, you can guess the colors and conditions that might increase the crash risk. You might lose a silver car in the sun’s glare. Or a black or blue car might disappear on an unlit road.
According to the Florida Crash Facts Report for 2021, crashes involving adverse visibility caused:
- 35,062 people injured or killed on cloudy days
- 19,752 people injured or killed on rainy days
- 18,622 people injured or killed on dark and unlit streets
Florida and St. Petersburg crash statistics do not report the number of crashes that might have resulted from glare. However, a study from the NHTSA estimated that glare causes about 0.34% of crashes. Using this number, you can estimate that 873 people were injured or killed due to glare.
The Influence of Car Color on Crash Risk
Three university studies have looked at car color and crash risk. All of these studies were statistical. They analyzed crash records to determine whether some colors were overrepresented in crashes.
However, these studies reached entirely different conclusions. As a result, the science behind car color and crash risk probably lacks the reliability and repeatability needed for use in court. In other words, a judge could block an at-fault driver from calling an expert witness to testify that you got hit because you drove the wrong color car.
The three main studies about car color and crash risk include:
The University of Auckland Study
The University of Auckland study looked at roughly 15 months of crash records in the late 1990s. The data from these crash records was cleaned to control for factors such as the driver’s age, the lighting at the accident scene, and whether the driver used drugs or alcohol.
The crash reports showed that silver and gray had a significantly lower crash risk while black, green, and brown had a significantly higher crash risk.
The Monash University Study
The Monash University study looked at a much larger dataset. Researchers conducting this study reviewed over 850,000 accident reports spanning 1982 to 2004 in Australia. The researchers conducted a complicated statistical analysis to eliminate variables unrelated to color.
At the end of this analysis, the study found that blue, green, silver, gray, and red vehicles had an increased crash risk. The study also found that certain colors, like mauve, had a lower crash risk. However, the colors with a lower crash risk also had more chaotic data sets. The researchers had to dismiss these conclusions because they failed to meet the standard set by the researchers.
The Kunsan National University Study
The Kunsan National University study took a different approach. The researchers surveyed 500 randomly selected vehicle owners about their car accidents.
The researchers ranked colors according to crash risk based on the survey responses:
- Blue (riskiest)
- Green
- White
- Red
- Black
- Silver
- Brown
- Yellow/gold (least risky)
The survey results did not match the other two crash studies, with the exception of green. All three studies rated green as having a higher-than-average risk.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Skilled St. Petersburg Car Accident Attorneys
Car accidents can have many causes, including the visibility of your car due to its color. Contact our law office at Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys or call us (727) 933-0015 to discuss your car accident and the compensation you can get for your injuries.
