Q4 - On a short trip

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Question Type
Explain a Result

Stimulus
A paradoxical result is provided in the stimulus. Why is that a passenger, while increasing the risk of an accident on short trips, has the opposite effect on longer trips?

Anticipate
It seems plausible that the presence of a passenger would help keep the driver awake on longer drives and protect the driver on longer trips from the dangerous possibility of falling asleep. It should be noted that this makes sense only if drivers are more likely to nod off on longer trips.

Correct Answer
(C) describes a difference between the way a passenger influences a driver on longer trips compared to shorter ones. The difference (i.e., increasing the alertness of the driver) is stronger for longer trips and does indeed help to explain why passengers tend to increase the risk of an accident for shorter trips, but then decrease the risk of an accident for longer ones.

Incorrect Answers
(A) is out of scope. The stimulus compares the influence of passangers on the likelihood of an accident on shorter trips compared with longer ones. Those trips that do not have a passenger are out of scope.

(B) fails to explain the differing influence of passengers on drivers. How does this explain why a driver on a longer trip is less likely to have an accident with a passenger than without one?

(D) is out of scope. Why did the first passenger on longer trips reduce the risk of an accident in the first place?

(E) is out of scope. Nothing in this answer explains the reduced likelihood of an accident on a long trip with a passenger and that of long trip without a passenger.

#officialexplanation

[mswang7]

Driving is safer without passengers for short trips but with passengers for long trips.
Prephrase: It's more likely you have a passenger for a short trip (is grocery store with roommate) than someone who is willing to go with you all the way to the next state. In this cases there are more short trips with passengers taken than long trips with passengers and the more trips the more accidents)
The correct answer needs to discuss the presence (or absence of passengers) with the length of the trip.

A. This is comparing short trips alone (supposedly safer) with long trips with passengers (oh wait according to the premise this is similarly safe)
B. Great but we know nothing about whether great good drivers tend to take passengers or not.
C. This would make sense - passengers are more careless on shorter trips, perhaps they expect the driver to know how to get to the grocery store as opposed to helping navigate on a roap trip to a new city)
D. Does not tie together the factors we need to compare (only discusses long trips)
E. What about the passenger component?