Interpretation ID: aiam3542
Senior Test Engineer
British Standards Institution
Test House
Maylands Avenue
Hemel Hempstead
Herts HP2 4SQ
England;
Dear Mr. Lawson: This responds to your letter of December 22, 1981, concerning Federa Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 218, *Motorcycle Helmets*, and its relationship to non-Federal standards.; FMVSS No. 218 is the helmet standard in the United States to whic manufacturers must certify compliance for all newly manufactured helmets to which the standard is applicable. Private standards, such as ANSI or Snell, are not legally enforceable. However, it is possible in cases of product liability that such private standards could be used as evidence in civil suits that a particular manufacturer was not designing its helmets to the state of the art.; Various states may also have requirements concerning motorcycl helmets. However, section 103(d) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act provides that '(w)henever a Federal motor vehicle safety standard established under this title is in effect, no State or political subdivision of a State shall have any authority either to establish, or to continue in effect, with respect to any motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment any safety standard applicable to the same aspect of performance of such vehicle or item of equipment which is not identical to the Federal standard....' Thus, a non-identical State safety standard covering the same aspect of performance as FMVSS No. 218 would be preempted by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and therefore would be unenforceable.; The answers to your more specific questions are as follows. a) How are the two standards linked for compliance testing now tha their technical requirements are different?; As indicated above, there is no connection between FMVSS No. 218 an private standards.b) What procedure should helmet manufacturers follow in order to gain compliance?; The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not grant prio approvals of motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment. Instead, section 114 of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act requires manufacturers to certify compliance of each motor vehicle and item of equipment with all applicable FMVSS's. The Act requires that manufacturers exercise 'due care' to ensure that their products conform to each applicable standard (section 108(b)(1)).; A manufacturer is not required to run the actual tests specified by safety standard. Instead, a manufacturer must take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that its products, if tested according to the requirements of a standard, would meet those requirements. Since FMVSS No. 218 includes a number of specific test requirements, it is likely that a manufacturer would find it necessary to do some testing in order to ensure that a helmet complied with the standard. For enforcement purposes, the agency would test a helmet according to the specific test requirements of FMVSS No. 218.; c) Who are the recognized Test Houses in the U.S. and elsewhere? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not maintain list of qualified test laboratories. There may be many test laboratories, both here and abroad, who are qualified to do the testing necessary to ensure that a helmet meets the requirements of FMVSS No. 218. Southwest Research Institute and Dayton T. Brown, Inc., have been our compliance test contractors. Their addresses are:; >>>Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, T 78284; Dayton T. Brown, Inc., Church Street, Bohemia, Long Island, NY 11716<<< d) What part does the American Association of Motor Vehicl Administrators and the Safety Helmet Council of America have in compliance testing?; As indicated above, manufacturers are responsible for certifying thei compliance with FMVSS No. 218. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration monitors compliance with FMVSS No. 218 and other safety standards through its enforcement program. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) is an association of State and provincial government officials who are involved in the administration and enforcement of motor vehicle and traffic laws in the United States and Canada. The Safety Helmet Council of America is a trade association of helmet manufacturers. We are uncertain what role these organizations currently play in either assisting manufacturers in meeting their certain responsibilities under FMVSS No. 218 or, in the case of the AAMVA, in the enforcement of State safety standards identical to FMVSS No. 218.; We have enclosed a copy of a recent interpretation issued by thi agency which concerns preemption and pre-sale State enforcement of safety standards. Among other things, the notice discusses this agency's interpretation of the effect of a State law which purports to require, as part of a pre-sale enforcement program of a State standard identical to FMVSS No. 218, that approval of helmets be obtained from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.; As the notice states, it is the opinion of the agency that the State are preempted under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act from engaging in activities involving the pre-sale enforcement of State standards identical to the FMVSS's where such activities involve procedures or impose burdens which differ in any significant respect from those of the Federal regulatory scheme under the Act.; Thus, any State requirement which necessitates that manufacturers pa fees in order to obtain approval under a State standard identical to a FMVSS, and any imposition of requirements for approval which has the effect of proscribing the sale of equipment certified under the Act to a standard such as FMVSS No. 218 is preempted by operation of the Act and of the agency's action in adopting the Federal standard in question.; States may, however, choose to enforce State standards identical t Federal standards through the purchase and testing of an item at State expense. Thus, a State might purchase a motorcycle helmet and test it according to the requirements of a State standard identical to FMVSS No. 218.; e) Can you advise me where I can purchase a magnesium alloy tes headform and support arm for the required shock absorption testing?; We are aware of two companies that market magnesium alloy tes headforms. Controlled Castings Corporation has recently been involved with contract work for the agency and has A, C and D sizes available. (Only the size C headform is currently required by the compliance tests of FMVSS No. 218). We are currently working with their headforms for research purposes. The United States Testing Company, Inc., also markets a version of the size C headform. It is the only company we are aware of that markets monorail drop equipment, which includes the support arm. We do not know if they sell the support arm by itself.; We would point out that the support arm marketed by the United State Testing Company, Inc., may be too heavy for the size C headform produced by Controlled Castings Corporation. It may, therefore, require some modification before it can be used for testing purposes with that headform.; The addresses of those two companies are: >>>Controlled Castings Corporation, 31 Commercial Court, Plainview, N 11803; United States Testing Company, Inc., Instrument Marketing Division 1415 Park Avenue, Hoboken, NJ 07030<<<; In regard to your questions (c) and (e), you may wish to contact th Safety Helmet Council of America. It may be able to give you additional information about qualified test laboratories and suppliers of testing equipment. The address of that organization is:; >>>Safety Helmet Council of America, 9841 Airport Boulevard, Suit 1208, Los Angeles, CA 90045<<<; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel