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Interpretation ID: 20778.drn



    Jacqueline Glassman, Esq.
    Senior Staff Counsel
    DaimlerChrysler Corporation
    1000 Chrysler Drive   CIMS 485-14-18
    Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2766



    Dear Ms. Glassman:

    This responds to your request for an interpretation of S4.5 of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 114, Theft Protection. I apologize for the delay in responding. You ask whether a warning referenced in S4.5 is required when the driver's door is opened and the metal key is in the "accessory" position of a vehicle's ignition switch when that position is not between the "on" and "lock" positions. Our answer is yes.

    The purpose of Standard No. 114 is to reduce the incidence of crashes resulting from unauthorized operation of a motor vehicle, and from the rollaway of parked vehicles with automatic transmissions as a result of children moving the shift mechanism out of the "park" position. To further these purposes, S4.5 of the standard provides that: "A warning to the driver shall be activated whenever the key required by S4.2 has been left in the locking system and the driver's door is opened." (1) The purpose of the provision is to prevent, as far as possible, drivers from inadvertently leaving the key in the ignition lock when the car is unoccupied. See, e.g., 34 FR 9342 (June 13, 1969).

    There are three exceptions to the general requirement of S4.5 that a warning must be activated whenever the key has been left in the locking system and the driver's door is opened. The exceptions set forth in S4.5(a) through (c), which were promulgated after the general requirement was adopted, provide that the warning to the driver need not operate:

    (a) After the key has been manually withdrawn to a position from which it may not be turned;

    (b) When the key-locking system is in the "on" or "start" position; or

    (c) After the key has been inserted in the locking system and before it has been turned.

    Your letter refers to vehicles manufactured by DaimlerChrysler in which the warning referenced in S4.5 does not operate when the key is in the "accessory" position. A drawing you provided of the ignition switch system in these vehicles shows the ignition switch aperture in the center, surrounded by the positions, in clockwise order from the left, "accessory" (at approximately the 7:00 position, if you imagine the round aperture as the face of a clock), "lock" (at 9:00), "off" (at 11:00), "on" (at 1:00), and "start" (at 2:00).

    Your letter asserts that "the key is removed from the key locking system when it is turned to the 'accessory' position of the ignition switch." You suggest that this is because the key, in the "accessory" position, "does not permit normal activation of the vehicle's engine or motor, nor does it permit steering or forward self-mobility of the vehicle" (you refer to the words of S4.2 of the standard, which states that removal of the key must have such an effect on the vehicle). Yet you acknowledge that the key remains in the ignition switch.

    We do not agree that the key has been withdrawn from the key-locking system when it is in the "accessory" position. The fact that the key would have to be turned to activate the engine or to allow steering or forward self-mobility does not mean that the key is not in the key-locking system. The key would also have to be turned from the "lock" position, which you acknowledge is part of the key-locking system. Similarly, the fact that the "accessory" position is beyond the "lock" position is irrelevant, since the standard does not refer to the relative locations of the various positions in a key-locking system. The risks that Standard No. 114 is designed to protect against (theft and rollaway) are no less real when the key is in the "accessory" position than when it is left in other positions in the vehicle's ignition switch.

    In asserting that the key-locking system includes only positions between "on" and "lock," you quote the following sentences from the preamble to the amendment to Standard No. 114 that added the exceptions to S4.5 (34 FR 9342, 9343 (June 13, 1969)):

    It was the purpose of this provision to require activation of the warning device whenever the key is left in the lock in a position from which the lock can be turned. Once the driver has withdrawn the key beyond the position, he is presumably aware of the location of the key, and no warning need be given to him. (Your emphasis.)

    However, contrary to your assertion, this language demonstrates that the standard applies when a key is left in the "accessory" position, since it is not disputed that "the lock can be turned" from that position. Indeed, the Federal Register notice from which you quote specifically refers to a situation when ". . . the key is so far removed as to be dangling from the locking mechanism" (34 FR at 9343), a position from which it could not be turned at all. Further, to the extent that your letter could be construed as suggesting that the exemption in S4.5(a) applies to this situation, we interpret the phrase "has been manually withdrawn" in S4.5(a) as referring to the action of removing, or attempting to remove, a key from the switch (resulting in, for example, a dangling key), not the turning of the key to a position that is within the switch, such as the "accessory" position. Interpreting the wording this way is consistent with the purposes of the amendment and with the standard itself.

    NHTSA's denial of a 1969 petition for rulemaking from General Motors (GM) to amend the S4.5(a) exemption is illustrative. GM wanted us to allow the warning to be inoperative "after the key has been manually withdrawn from the normal operating position." It sought the amendment because on some then-manufactured GM vehicles, a driver could manipulate the ignition key into a position at which the warning buzzer would be deactivated, but the key would be able to turn the lock.

    In denying GM's petition, NHTSA stated that the suggested amendment was contrary to the purpose of the requirement, which was:

    . . . to make it virtually impossible for a driver inadvertently to leave his key in the ignition lock when he exits and thereby to reduce car thefts along with the high potential for accidental injury and death that stolen cars have. If it were possible for a driver to manipulate the key so as to render the warning inoperative while, at the same time, to continue to operate the vehicle with the key in the lock, the salutary purpose of the warning requirement would be defeated.

    34 FR 19547 (December 11, 1969).

    You present an analogous situation. A key in the "accessory" position is a "key in the lock." Allowing the warning to be inoperative in such a position, from which the key may be turned, would be contrary to the purpose of the warning requirement.

    We also note that the legal position that you advocate in your letter is belied by the long-standing understanding by Chrysler Corporation (a predecessor of DaimlerChrysler) of the requirements of Standard No. 114. For example, Compliance Procedure CP-383, issued on February 18, 1988, "describes the method to be used in verifying compliance of the ignition and steering column key in-lock warning with the vehicle theft protection requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (MVSS) 114 . . . ." That document states, "The Warning [to the driver] must operate when the ignition key is in the accessory, lock or off positions." (boldface type and underlining in original).

    Similarly, DaimlerChrysler's Manufacturing Assurance Standards Safety/Emissions (MASSE) 11-3002, entitled "Seat Belt and Key-In Lock Warning Systems - All Vehicles," specifies in Section 1.1 (which explicitly refers to Standard No. 114), "A warning to the driver will be activated whenever the ignition key has been left in the locking system, the ignition is in the "OFF", "LOCK", or "ACC" position and the driver's door is opened." This is reiterated in the "Manufacturing Assurance Requirements," of MASSE 11-3002, which state (in Section 2.2) that the applicable "Vehicle Conditions" include placing the "Ignition key in ignition and in 'OFF' or 'Accessory' position." Moreover, the "Verification Sequence" for this requirement described in Section 2.3 specifies the following procedure: "Open the driver's door. THE BUZZER OR CHIME SHOULD ACTIVATE AN AUDIBLE WARNING." (emphasis in original). Thus, Chrysler's Compliance Procedure and MASSE unequivocally demonstrate that the company has long understood that Standard No. 114 applies when the key is left in the "accessory" position.

    Ultimately, even apart from DaimlerChrysler's past understanding and its internal documents, the position advocated in your letter is inconsistent with common sense and experience. One primary purpose of the "accessory" position in automobiles is to allow drivers who have reached their destination to listen to the radio or perform a task requiring use of the vehicle's electrical system without running the engine. It is certainly foreseeable that a forgetful driver in that situation might inadvertently leave the key in the vehicle upon exiting if he or she were not alerted by a warning. It was to prevent such an occurrence that Standard No. 114 was adopted.

    If you need further assistance, please contact Dorothy Nakama of my staff at this address or at (202) 366-2992.


    Sincerely,

    Frank Seales, Jr.
    Chief Counsel


    ref:114
    d.9/25/00

    1. S4.2 requires each vehicle to have a key-locking system that, whenever the key is removed, prevents: (a) the normal activation of the vehicle's engine or motor; and (b) either steering or forward self-mobility of the vehicle or both.