Self-study
A safety report indicates that, on average, traffic fatalities decline by about 7 percent in those areas in which strict laws requiring drivers and passengers to wear seat belts have been passed. ██ █ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ █████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Strict seatbelt laws typically reduce traffic fatalities, so why didn’t fatalities decline in this city when seatbelt laws went into effect?
Objective
There are a number of possible explanations for why fatalities didn’t decline in this city (there could be other causes of fatalities that cancel out the reductions brought about by the laws, the laws may not be effectively enforced, etc.), but the correct answer will not be helpful in explaining why fatalities didn’t decline. It will either be irrelevant or make the discrepancy even harder to resolve.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████ ████████
a
Two years ago █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██ █████
This could be an alternative cause of the persistent fatalities. If speed limits were raised just as the seatbelt laws went into effect, then faster driving could have caused more fatalities, effectively cancelling out the reduction brought about by the laws.
b
The city now ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████
This could resolve the discrepancy because it would mean that more kinds of deaths are now counted as traffic fatalities, making the current number of recorded fatalities inflated even if fewer people are actually dying.
c
In the time █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ █ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████████
This could be an alternative cause of the persistent fatalities. With more cars on the road, there would naturally be more accidents. So the seatbelt laws may be reducing fatalities, but this reduction is effectively cancelled out by the greater number of drivers.
d
Because the city's ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ████ █████
This could resolve the discrepancy because the stimulus indicates that strict seatbelt laws tend to reduce fatalities, but if (D) is true, then these laws aren’t strictly enforced. The laws may not be reducing fatalities simply because most people are ignoring them.
e
In the last ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████
This doesn’t explain why there wasn’t a decrease in fatalities. If anything, a correlation between not wearing seatbelts and deaths would give us more reason to expect laws requiring seatbelts to be effective, so the discrepancy becomes even harder to resolve.