Studies have Shown that a Large Percentage of Car Accidents are Caused by Aggressive Driving.

Topic: Studies have shown that a large percentage of car accidents are caused by aggressive driving. To help reduce the number of accidents and to promote traffic safety in general, insurance companies have begun to issue discounts to drivers who take defensive driving courses. Research shows that people who practice defensive driving are considerably less likely to get into a car accident. Therefore, the insurance company’s plan should help reduce the number of accidents.

Assuming the statements above are true, which of the following can be inferred from them?

1. The majority of accidents are caused by drivers who possess insurance.
2. People who manage to consistently avoid car accidents are likely practicing defensive driving.
3. Young males and other demographics known for disproportionately being involved in car accidents are less likely to practice defensive driving than other demographics.
4. An individual who does not practice defensive driving is always more likely to get into a car accident than an individual who does practice defensive driving.
5. Discounts are the most effective way for insurance companies to promote defensive driving.

“Studies have Shown that a Large Percentage of Car Accidents are Caused by Aggressive Driving.” – this is a GMAT Critical question. This particular GMAT Critical Reasoning topic has been taken from the book ‘501 GMAT Questions’. In this particular topic, candidates need to choose the option that best suits the passage. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. Critical reasoning in GMAT requires candidates to find the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, or find the logical flaw in the argument.  The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

Answer: C
Explanation:

We will look at the options one at a time. 

Let us start with option B.

The answer choice is saying that people who practice defensive driving are likely to avoid accidents. We do not know as per the passage if this statement fits. The reason is that those who in general avoid accidents could be doing so for a variety of reasons. Hence, defensive driving isn’t the only way to avoid accidents. We can think of those who avoid accidents as a large circle or which defensive drivers are only a small circle within this large circle.

So let us assume that 90% of people who avoid accidents do so because of something besides defensive driving. If this is the case, then (B) is not valid. This is because the people who are consistently avoiding accidents are not necessarily practicing defensive driving. They could be doing something else to avoid accidents.

Now we will look at option C

Though it may seem “out of scope” because it mentions demographics not found in the prompt, inference questions can pertain to information outside the passage. As long as the statement can be inferred based on the information in the passage.

In this case, “those who practice defensive driving are considerably less likely to get into a car accident” does not include young male/other demographics. This group, based on the information in the passage, is likely to get into a car accident. Therefore, young males/others are less likely to practice defensive driving. The passage doesn't talk about "young males". We can take information in the passage like:
"practice defensive driving” implies “less likely in accidents"
We can use this to support
"DO NOT Practice defensive driving” implies “MORE likely in accidents"
Hence, C is the most appropriate answer as per the passage. 

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