Drivers of red cars have a poor reputation. People tend to associate that car color with drivers who do dangerous things like speeding or gunning their vehicles at stop lights before pulling away with a screech of the tires.
Studies of how car color affects safety do not back up the presumption that you need to take extra care around red vehicles.
Black vehicles are the real danger
The most dangerous vehicle color turns out to not be a color at all, but the absence of color, i.e., black. Black absorbs most of the light that hits it, only reflecting a very small amount compared to other colors. When we see an object, such as a car, what we are seeing is the reflected light, so the less reflected light there is, the harder it will be to see. That lack of visibility increases crash risk.
The safest color for cars is white, because white reflects more light than any other color, making it easier to see in most cases. There are circumstances where white cars can be hard to spot, such as on a snowy day, where they blend into the background. Overall, however, it is the safest car color because it is usually the easiest to spot.
As for red cars, they have been found to be 7% more likely to be in a crash than white vehicles, which is the same risk as for blue cars. Silver was 10% more likely, gray was 11% more likely and black sits at the top of the tree with a 12% higher chance.
Whatever the color of a car that hits you and the car you are in at the time, it’s important to remember that color is just one element that can help explain a crash. With legal guidance to focus on the bigger factors, such as any negligent actions by the other party, you can increase the chance that your compensation claim succeeds.