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Safety consultant: Judged by the number of injuries per licensed vehicle, minivans are the safest vehicles on the road. However, in carefully designed crash tests, minivans show no greater ability to protect their occupants than other vehicles of similar size do. Thus, the reason minivans have such a good safety record is probably not that they are inherently safer than other vehicles, but rather that they are driven primarily by low-risk drivers.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the safety consultant’s argument?

(A) When choosing what kind of vehicle to drive, low-risk drivers often select a kind that they know to perform particularly well in crash tests.

(B) Judged by the number of accidents per licensed vehicle, minivans are no safer than most other kinds of vehicles are.

(C) Minivans tend to carry more passengers at any given time than do most other vehicles.

(D) In general, the larger a vehicle is, the greater its ability to protect its occupants.

(E) Minivans generally have worse braking and emergency handling capabilities than other vehicles of similar size.

Source: LSAT

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT



There’s a cause and effect conclusion here. Why do minivans have fewer injuries per vehicle than other vehicles on the road? The offered cause for this effect is, “They are driven primarily by low-risk drivers.” The argument also rejects a competing cause. It’s “probably not that they are inherently safer vehicles.” Oh yeah, why not? Well, crash tests show that they have no greater ability to protect their occupants.

You’ll be shocked to learn that I intend to argue with this reasoning. Here goes: Okay, but even if the minivan is no better than another car in a crash, what if the minivan has the world’s best braking system? And the world’s best visibility? And the world’s most grippy (a technical term) tires? And a K.I.T.T.-style supercomputer onboard that warns the driver of impending danger? If any of that is true, then the minivan drivers could actually be worse than other drivers, and the injury data would be solely explained by the inherent safety of the minivan itself!

See, my objection here isn’t in the form of, “Safer drivers?! You’re an idiot, safer drivers couldn’t possibly lead to fewer injuries!” Rather, it’s in the form of, “Well, okay, safer drivers is one possibility. But aren’t there other possibilities that you’re leaving out? I don’t think your argument has adequately eliminated ‘inherently safer car’ from the possible causes.”

We’re asked to strengthen the argument. One way to strengthen the argument would be to further eliminate “safer car” from the running. Something like, “The minivan has the same visibility as every other car,” would be a good start. It wouldn’t prove the argument, but it would definitely make it that much stronger. Let’s see.

A) This might actually weaken the argument, by suggesting that safer drivers would have avoided the minivan.

B) I don’t think this is it. If minivans get into the same number of accidents as other vehicles, but have fewer injuries than other vehicles, then we’re still left wondering whether the drivers are more cautious (leading to fewer severe accidents) or the car is somehow safer (leading to fewer severe accidents). I don’t see how this premise supports the idea that drivers are responsible for the lower injury rate vs. the car being inherently better for injuries.

C) If this is true, it only reinforces the idea that minivans (or their drivers) are good at keeping passengers safe. It doesn’t change the minivan vs. driver argument, however.

D) This does nothing. We don’t know whether minivans are large or small in relation to other cars. Furthermore, the crash data was related to “other vehicles of similar size.” Totally irrelevant.

E) Well, yes. If this is true, then the minivan should be inherently more dangerous than cars of similar size. So this would tend to support the idea that something else (the drivers, perhaps?) might be responsible for the lower injury rates.

E is our answer.
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Any option that eliminates the weakness or alternate explanation will automatically strengthen the conclusion.
A) eliminate. It weakens the argument. Instead of giving due credit to low risk drivers, this option tells that vehicles perform particularly well in crash test. Opposite of what mentioned in question stem.
B)Correct.
C) out of scope
D) question stem informes that minivans are safest, not largest.
Even if we assume that there is a correlation between size and safety, how can we assume or say that they are the largest vehicles around.
E) This option weakens the argument.

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Safety consultant: Judged by the number of injuries per licensed vehicle, minivans are the safest vehicles on the road. However, in carefully designed crash tests, minivans show no greater ability to protect their occupants than other vehicles of similar size do. Thus, the reason minivans have such a good safety record is probably not that they are inherently safer than other vehicles, but rather that they are driven primarily by low-risk drivers.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the safety consultant’s argument?


(A) When choosing what kind of vehicle to drive, low-risk drivers often select a kind that they know to perform particularly well in crash tests.
This choice weaknes the argument of the consultant.

(B) Judged by the number of accidents per licensed vehicle, minivans are no safer than most other kinds of vehicles are.[/color
strengthening but lowly.

[color=#ed1c24](C) Minivans tend to carry more passengers at any given time than do most other vehicles.

Passenger count is out of scope

(D) In general, the larger a vehicle is, the greater its ability to protect its occupants.
weakens the argument by the consultant because if the size is the factor for safty then minivan will be structurally safer tehn rest of the the cars.and that point is entirely opposite to the point made by consultant.

(E) Minivans generally have worse braking and emergency handling capabilities than other vehicles of similar size.
Correct answer because even that the minivans have worset brakes and emergency handling ther are low injuries per accident and therfore there could only be ne reason for that ie the low risk drivers.(Drivers who are less risk drivers and not the drivers who prefer low risk cars)
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Option B compares minivans with other kind of vehicles. However the comparison should be with similar size vehicles. Hence option B is incorrect.

Option E is correct.. Very well explained by Abhishek


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Conclusion is "the reason minivans have such a good safety record is probably not that they are inherently safer than other vehicles, but rather that they are driven primarily by low-risk drivers".

To strengthen this conclusion we can either prove that minivans are not safe or prove that they are really driven by low risk drivers.

Option E clearly says Minivans have some disadvantages compared to similar kind of vehicles. Hence, E.
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(E)

Premise: Injury per licensed minivans are less
Premise: They perform no better than other vehicle in crash test
Conclusion: Less injury per vehicle is not due to inherent safety but due to they are driven by low-risk drivers.

(A) When choosing what kind of vehicle to drive, low-risk drivers often select a kind that they know to perform particularly well in crash tests.

That means low risk driver will choose safe vehicle, hence will not select minivans. So weakens

(B) Judged by the number of accidents per licensed vehicle, minivans are no safer than most other kinds of vehicles are.

accidents per vehicle is immaterial, as long as injuries per vehicle remain low. It can be considered as safer than other option. So driving doesn't matter here

(C) Minivans tend to carry more passengers at any given time than do most other vehicles.

If they carry more passenger and still injury is less per vehicle that means they are safe.

(D) In general, the larger a vehicle is, the greater its ability to protect its occupants.

So driving doesn't matter here.

(E) Minivans generally have worse braking and emergency handling capabilities than other vehicles of similar size.

So that means vehicle is bad in safety feature hence there may be something else like low risk driving which is responsible for it's less injury record
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