Study: Bright Colors Save Lots of Motorcyclists' Lives

Wearing a bright-colored helmet can cut a motorcycle rider's crash risk by a quarter, according to a new study by researchers in New Zealand, and combining that helmet with reflective clothing can improve the odds in your favor by more than a third. This reaffirms past research that has shown that traditional dark-colored motorcyclist clothing works against riders in terms of accident avoidance.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal offers the following conclusions:

Surprisingly, the study found "no association between risk of crash related injury and the frontal colour of drivers' clothing or motorcycle." This is at odds with the Hurt Report (now a quarter-century old, but still the only comprehensive study of U.S. motorcycle accidents) that concluded just the opposite. However, the Hurt researchers did not identify helmet color as such a signficant accident-avoidance factor.

Though the study doesn't look at the issue specifically, people knowledgeable about conspicuity point out that solid bright colors are more useful than patterns that combine bright colors. A solid white, yellow, bright red, or orange lid is more likely to catch a driver's eye than one that combines those colors in an intricate design.

You can find the study here:
British Medical Journal

The following articles discuss the study:
Health Day
Newswire
Web MD
China View
Femail, UK