The following breakdown of a total of 18,597 transportation fatalities that occured in 2007 was obtained from records compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). What is the probability that a victim randomly selected from this list of transportation fatalities for 2007 died in a train or a plane accident? Round answer to two decimal places.
A) 0.05
B) 0.11
C) 0.07
D) 0.08

Question

The following breakdown of a total of 18,597 transportation fatalities that occured in 2007 was obtained from records compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).  What is the probability that a victim randomly selected from this list of transportation fatalities for 2007 died in a train or a plane accident? Round answer to two decimal places.
A) 0.05 
B) 0.11 
C) 0.07 
D) 0.08

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

According to the given data, the total number of transportation fatalities in 2007 was 18,597. Out of these, the number of victims who died in a train or a plane accident is not given directly. However, we can add up the number of fatalities in the "Rail" and "Aviation" categories to get the total number of victims who died in train or plane accidents.

From the data, the number of fatalities in the "Rail" category is 785 and the number of fatalities in the "Aviation" category is 1,189. Adding these gives a total of 1,974 fatalities in train or plane accidents in 2007.

Therefore, the probability of a victim randomly selected from this list of transportation fatalities for 2007 dying in a train or a plane accident is:

P(train or plane accident) = Number of fatalities in train or plane accidents / Total number of transportation fatalities 
= 1,974 / 18,597 
= 0.106 (rounded to two decimal places)

So the best choice is (C), 0.07.

The Following Breakdown of a Total of 18,597 Transportation Fatalities