dependency of colour of car and insurance amount

I was going through an article in todays Pune times. The article was based about the different color of cars, their significane and above all the insurance dependence part. It was really strange to see that insurance companies are planning to charge more for dark colors like black, dark blue etc because according to them these cars stand a higher risk of accidents at night due to non visibility as in, other drivers would not spot dark coloured cars at night. Maybe they should understand that there are some features in cars like headlights, tail lights, stop lamps, brake lights, reflectors etc which are in place. If a car coming from behind has its head lights on and the car in front has its tail lights and reflectors in working condition and in use there is hardly any chance that they will colide. In fact the insurance companies seem to have sent a petition to IRDA for an approval to charge more for dark coloured cars. If it is approved it will be on of its kind i guess

An accident is generally the result of a screw loose in the nut behind the steering wheel

I agree with you centaur... this utterly rediculous... even if the dark car has bad reflectors ... the car coming from back or front must be having good head lamps ... and as far as my experience goes ..spotting the a car in the night while driving solely depends on the other car's headlight not the color ... you can't even make out whether the approaching car is black or pure white ...

Smile : A curve that can set a lot of things straight.

true. Here people concentrate on just making money rather than looking at the safety. Traffic sense is the worst we have and so are the accidents. Black is generally considered and inauspicous colour and also it heats up a lot when the vehicle is parked in the Sun. Apart from that i dont see any problem with black colour. If people start driving more sensibly accidents will much lesser. No lane discipline, no overtaking sense, no following of traffic rules, speeding etc are the cause for accidents and not the colour. Maybe this is just  a money making gimmick for the insurance companies in this times of recession

An accident is generally the result of a screw loose in the nut behind the steering wheel

At nights, the colour of the car shouldn't matter.  But during day time, black car in particular & a few colours having shades of brown, golden etc., do have less of road presence - you may sometimes miss it / see them appear suddenly.  White & Red have the best road-presence.

Honesty is not a Spare Wheel that you pull out when in trouble. It's a Steering Wheel that keeps you on the right path throughout the life's journey.

i dont think so Pankaj. Infact during the day its much easier to spot a car or for that matter any vehicle of any colour.

An accident is generally the result of a screw loose in the nut behind the steering wheel

I suggest, while driving/traveling on highway analyse/observe the cars/colours approaching you.  You will surely mark the difference.

Honesty is not a Spare Wheel that you pull out when in trouble. It's a Steering Wheel that keeps you on the right path throughout the life's journey.

I agree with pankaj, in fact i had seen two articles suggesting the same thing as Pankaj said here, that some colours are having greater visibility during day time and they are less risky. In night, colour doesn't matter and it is the light which makes road presence. The article also says white is the safest during day time. But about Red i am not very sure. Santhanam

Nice discussion. I am really interested to know more about it.

Every colour has a different capacity to reflect & absorb the light according to its own wavelength.

White absorbs least & reflects almost all light where as Black absorbs almost all light & reflects very less light. This explains why Black colour car is having less cooling in summer where as White colour car is having better cooling in summer.

Lighter the colour , better the cooling in summer.

It applies to all sorts of light sources. Day light as well as artificial light source.

So even at night when artificial light falls on dark colours , it reflects less compare to pastle colours there by increasing chances of mis judgement in distance to cover.