Bad charts? Just like there are bad graphs (as seen in Section 2.8), there are bad charts—

misleading and hard-to-read charts. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) presented the following chart regarding the 6764 holiday traffic fatalities that occurred in 2002.

Total Traffic Total Fatalities Holiday 2002 Fatalities Alcohol-Related New Year’s Eve (2001) 118 45 New Year’s Day 165 94 New Year’s Holiday 575 301 Super Bowl Sunday 147 86 St. Patrick’s Day 158 72 Memorial Day 491 237 Fourth of July 683 330 Labor Day weekend 541 300 Halloween 268 109 Thanksgiving 543 255 Thanksgiving–New Year’s 4019 1561 Christmas 130 68 New Year’s Eve (2002) 123 57 Source: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/
A0777960.html

a. The column totals are not included because they would be meaningless values. Examine the table and explain why.

b. Select the appropriate nonoverlapping holidays (column 1) and verify the 6764 total number of traffic fatalities for 2002.

c. Using the holidays selected in part

b, find the total number of holiday alcohol-related traffic fatalities for 2002?

d. Describe how you would organize this chart to make it more meaningful.