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Trucks fatalities

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Trucks fatalities

by rx_11 » Fri Nov 26, 2010 10:33 pm
In the nation of Partoria, large trucks currently account for 6 percent of miles driven on Partoria's roads but are involved in 12 percent of all highway fatalities. The very largest trucks-those with three trailers-had less than a third of the accident rate of single-and double-trailer trucks. Clearly, therefore, one way for Partoria to reduce highway deaths would be to require shippers to increase their use of triple-trailer trucks.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. No matter what changes Partoria makes in the regulation of trucking, it will have to keep some smaller roads off-limits to all large trucks.

B. So far only the best, most expereinced drivers for partorian trucking companies have been driving triple-trailer trucks

C. Very few fatal collisions involving trucks in Partoria are collisions between two trucks.

D. In Partoria, the safety record of the trucking industry as a whole has improved slightly over the past ten years.

E. In Partoria, the maximum legal payload of a triple-trailer truck is less than three times the maximum legal payload of the largest of the single-trailer trucks



OA is B

This is a prep question, and this one is slightly different from the previous edition.

I can't see why B is the correct answer. If most triple-trailer trucks are driven by most skillul and experienced drivers, why does this point weaken the argument, rather than strengthen?
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by Ravish » Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:05 am
IMO 'B'

Given that we are given a question stem that asks us to weaken the claim that 'larger trucks are safer than smaller trucks' , we should attack the answer choices looking for an answer that proves that, there was some other reason involved in making the larger trucks safer than smaller trucks.


A. No matter what changes Partoria makes in the regulation of trucking, it will have to keep some smaller roads off-limits to all large trucks.

This goes against the argument rather than weaken it. If larger trucks need to be kept off the roads, it hints that they may be more dangerous than smaller trucks but the argument has solid numbers to conclude that the larger trucks are safer so why take them of the road then?

B. So far only the best, most expereinced drivers for partorian trucking companies have been driving triple-trailer trucks

Correct! You can analyse this answer choice and go, hmm, if the best and most experienced drivers drive the larger trucks, the it means they are probably the reason why the large trucks are causing less accidents than the small trucks. The reason that the small trucks are causing accidents is because they are being driven by less experience drivers and hence, the rate of accidents has nothing to do with the size of the trucks rather, it is the experience of the drivers driving the large trucks that make them safer than the small trucks. If the best drivers were to switch over to the small trucks, then the accident rate for the small trucks would go down to.

C. Very few fatal collisions involving trucks in Partoria are collisions between two trucks.

Irrelevant! The trucks could be involved in collisions with other vehicles. The argument is not limited by its concern only for the safety of trucks

D. In Partoria, the safety record of the trucking industry as a whole has improved slightly over the past ten years.

Irrelevant. This does not negate the fact that 12% of collisions are caused by trucks and most certainly doesn't weaken the claim that LARGE trucks need to be encourages over smaller trucks. Moreover, one can also assume that ' what if the accidents caused by trucks fell dramatically over 8 years but increased sharply in the past 2 years?

E. In Partoria, the maximum legal payload of a triple-trailer truck is less than three times the maximum legal payload of the largest of the single-trailer trucks

The large trucks carry more load than the small trucks so then why are they safer? Irrelevant!
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by shovan85 » Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:19 am
rx_11 wrote:In the nation of Partoria, large trucks currently account for 6 percent of miles driven on Partoria's roads but are involved in 12 percent of all highway fatalities. The very largest trucks-those with three trailers-had less than a third of the accident rate of single-and double-trailer trucks. Clearly, therefore, one way for Partoria to reduce highway deaths would be to require shippers to increase their use of triple-trailer trucks.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
Weaken the argument one way for Partoria to reduce highway deaths would be to require shippers to increase their use of triple-trailer trucks.

In order to weaken the argument we have to expose either a Faulty Assumption or we have to show that what is mentioned is not True.

The author takes granted that the usage of triple-trailer truck will reduce the fatalities without considering other constraints such as the road condition on which triple-trailer moves, the driver, the brake system (just giving example :)).

Now we have to find an Option which exposes any of the conditions that author has not considered.

So B states so, by saying those are the most experienced drivers.

This weakens the argument by pointing out the flaw that there is no gurantee that fatalities will go down by using triple-trailer unless those are maneuvered by experienced drivers.
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