Safety consultant: Judged by the number of injuries per licensed

EXPLANATION FROM POWER SCORE

Strengthen—CE. The correct answer choice is (E)

The stimulus begins by describing how minivans have an excellent safety record based on the number of injuries per licensed vehicle. Yet minivans do not protect their occupants any better than other similar vehicles during crashes. The conclusion provides a two-part causal argument to explain minivans’ exceptional safety statistics in the first sentence: minivans’ safety record is not caused by their inherent safety, but rather by the low-risk disposition of the drivers who own them.

..... ..... ..... Cause ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Effect
Low-risk drivers (not inherent safety) --> Exceptional safety statistics of minivans (judged by the number of injuries/vechicle)

Our goal is to identify an answer choice that strengthens the causal argument in the conclusion. Any answer choice suggesting that low-risk drivers are more likely to be the reason why minivans have an excellent safety record would strengthen this conclusion. Note also that the author rejected an alternative cause for the exceptional safety statistics—the inherent safety of minivans. Therefore, any answer choice that makes it less likely that the minivans’ inherent safety caused their excellent safety record would also strengthen the argument.

Answer choice (A): This is the Opposite answer. The premises suggest that minivans do not perform particularly well in crash tests. If true, this answer choice suggests that low-risk drivers are likely to select vehicles other than minivans. This makes it less likely that such drivers caused the minivans’ excellent safety record, weakening the conclusion of the argument.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice indicates that minivans do not outperform other vehicles in the number of accidents per licensed vehicle. However, this does not alter the fact that minivans do outperform other vehicles in the number of injuries per licensed vehicle. The conclusion focuses on explaining why minivans have such low injury statistics. The number of accidents per vehicle has no bearing on the issue of whether low-risk drivers caused the low injury statistics, and might even weaken the conclusion if we assume that such drivers are generally less likely to get into an accident.

Answer choice (C): This answer choice also has no effect on the conclusion. If minivans carry more passengers than most vehicles, then it is even more impressive that minivans have fewer injuries per licensed vehicle. However, this answer choice does not make it more likely that low-risk drivers are the cause of these statistics, nor does it make inherent safety less likely to be the cause.

Answer choice (D): This answer choice suggests that size may be the reason why there are so few injuries per licensed vehicle. This is an alternate cause to low-risk drivers and therefore weakens the argument.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. A vehicle’s braking and emergency handling capabilities are both safety factors. This answer choice directly attacks the safety of the minivans, making it less likely that the inherent safety of the minivans is the cause of their impressive safety record. By attacking the alternate cause, this answer choice makes it more likely that low-risk drivers are the cause of minivans’ excellent safety record.