Solving the Probability of Crash for SUV Drivers

[snowslider]

I am trying to solve this task: The SUV drivers use their telephone four times as often as the drivers of other vehicles. At the same time, using your telephone while driving increases risk of an accident fourfold. Does that mean that the SUV drivers are 16 times more likely to have an accident than other drivers? I would say yes, because 4x4 = 16, but I am still hesitating. Thanks for help.

 

[MarkFL]

What it actually means is that SUV drivers in general are 16 times as likely to have an accident as drivers who do not use a cell phone at all while driving. If we simply compare SUV drivers to other drivers, with SUV drivers using cellphones 4 times as frequently as other drivers, then we would only conclude that SUV drivers are 4 times as likely as other drivers to have an accident.

 

[snowslider]

Thank you! I am getting really confused because I proceeded from 4WD drivers really as bad as we thought - World - smh.com.au and this sentence "That means drivers of four-wheel-drives are 16 times more likely to have an accident than other drivers because they are four times more likely to use a mobile while driving, she said." just made it even worse... :-/

 

[MarkFL]

It's kind of hard to tell in the article what the author really means, but I think the average reader will take that statement to mean 4WD drivers are 16 times as likely to be in an accident than other drivers period while what is really implied from the data is what I said in my first post. It's pretty commonplace for statistics to be misused in the media, either deliberately to strengthen weak arguments, or unintentionally because of a lack of understanding on the part of the journalist.

 

[snowslider]

Thank you very much for your effort.

 

[snowslider]

I am sorry to reopen this thread again... But I found another solution, which tells me that the result is 16/7... I took a picture of the solution, sorry for bad English, just please if you could check it, thank youView attachment 4992