CR - Click It or Ticket

[aroranitish0204]

Last January, in an attempt to lower the number of traffic fatalities, the state legislature passed its "Click It or Ticket" law. Under the new law, motorists can be pulled over and ticketed for not wearing their seat belts, even if an additional driving infraction has not been committed. Lawyers and citizens’ groups are already protesting the law, saying it unfairly infringes on the rights of the state’s drivers. Law enforcement groups counter these claims by stating that the new regulations will save countless additional lives.

Which of the following inferences is best supported by the passage above?


a) Prior to the "Click It or Ticket" law, motorists could not be stopped simply for not wearing a seat belt.


b) The "Click It or Ticket" law violates current search and seizure laws.


c) Laws similar to "Click It or Ticket" have effectively reduced traffic fatalities in a number of states.


d) The previous seatbelt laws were ineffective in saving lives.


e)Law enforcement groups, rather than citizens groups, should determine how to best ensure the safety of motorists.


The correct answer to the qestion suggested on the review page is option (a). My contention is that option (a) says prior to the new law motorists could not be stopped. It does not say 'stopped and ticketed' as the new law shall allow. Hence maybe earlier motorists were stopped and told to wear seat belts but not ticketed. My argument makes sense?

[rfernandez]

Yes, your argument does make sense. Thanks for catching this... I will pass it on to our curriculum czar for further inspection.

[supshalu]

i will go for D in this ....i did not understand why D is ruled out?..........PLease explain why A is the answer?

[Ben Ku]

supshalu: There is nothing in the argument that suggests that there had been laws previous to this one regarding wearing seat belts. Since we don't know whether such law existed, we cannot determine whether they were effective.

(A) make sense because when the argument states:
"Under the new law, motorists can be pulled over and ticketed for not wearing their seat belts, even if an additional driving infraction has not been committed."
the "Even IF" suggests that perhaps in the past motorists were only pulled over and ticketed for not wearing a seat belt when another driving infraction had been committed.