The most effective restraint for rear seat automobile

Question

The most effective restraint for rear seat automobile passengers in an accident is a shoulder and lap belt. Use of a lap belt alone can lead to injuries in some kinds of accidents. To determine whether it would be safer, in an automobile that has only lap belts in the rear seat, for a rear seat passenger to fasten the passenger's lap belt, it would be most relevant to know which of the following?
A. What the probability is of having an accident of any kind
B. Whether the passenger prefers to ride without a lap belt
C. Whether lap belts worn by front seat passengers have caused inuries in accidents of the kinds described
D. Whether accidents of the kinds described have resulted in inuries to any rear-seat passengers wearing shoulder and lap belts
E. How rear seat passengers fare without lap belts in the kinds of accidents referred to and in other kinds of accidents

I really do not understand the OA..

diehard4 · Answer

i will go with E.It took some time to choose between A and E, but A talks only abt probability of different kind of accidents but here we are concerned about saftey of rare seat passenger having belt in different kind of accidents.

iamcartic · Answer

D is more plausible I guess - reason it talks about a comparision btw lap & shoulder seat belts. E talks abt Lap belts alon. The premisis is speaking of Lap belt "alone"

gmat blows · Answer

POE, D. 
A. we are not concerned about the probability of having an accident - we jsut want to know whether it is safer or not
B. preference is irrelevant
C. front seat passengers is irrelevant
D. relates to using both restraints - so now the comparison can be made, correct
E. other kinds of accidents is irrelevant

stingraybullray · Answer

Its  D  for me.

grepro · Answer

My ans is D. Explanation same as gmatblow's

buffdaddy · Answer

the passage says that rear belts that are lapbelts only can be dangerous and can cause injury in some kinds of accidents. We are asked what is the most relevant question to ask to determine what is safer, wearing or not wearing the lap belt
(without the shoulder belt).

D comes close, but we are already told that lapbelts with shoulder belts are "most effective".

IMO, E is the answer since it says that if no lapbelts are worn, how serious are the injuries

in literal terms, lets say its easy to get a whiplash with a lapbelt only in a car accident, is it safer not to wear it? what if not wearing it could cause cranal fractures?

ldpedroso · Answer

E is the best answer to me.

The only way we can evaluate wether it´s safer to use the lap belt at the rear seat is to know what kind of injuries would a person without any belt suffer, and compare it with the injuries suffered by the people who used the lap belt.

FN · Answer

I am going with E..

it basically says what if the passenger doesnt wear the seat belt what could happen to him/her.

Jamesk486 · Answer

yeah the OA is E
but i thought it was out of scope because we're talking about lap belts and shoulder belts so i thought D was correct

isnt E out of scope??

ldpedroso · Answer

James

E is not out of the scope, because the author wants to determine, in a car only with a lap belt, if its safer to fasten the lap belt. Safer than what?? Safer than using no safety belt. So we must compra both situantions: passengers using lap belt and passenger using no belt.

Jamesk486 · Answer

i think i understand...but...why would they mention shoulder belts in the passage then? I would assume they would want to compare shoulder vs. lap

ldpedroso · Answer

The statement says "To determine whether it would be safer, in an automobile that has only lap belts in the rear seat, for a rear seat passenger to fasten the passenger's lap belt". There is no option to use shoulder belt. On that car, or you use lap belt, or use nothing.

lexis · Answer

Your explanation beats this question.

prasannar · Answer

E for me

To determine whether it would be safer, in an automobile that has only lap belts in the rear seat,  for a rear seat passenger to fasten the passenger's lap belt , it would be most relevant to know which of the following?

E provides the info on what happens when the rear seat passenger's lap belt is not worn.

D involves the shoulder belts which is irrelevant in the case of a rear seat passenger with ONLY a lap belt. thus D fades away.

The most effective restraint for rear seat automobile

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