Interpretation ID: NCC-231206-001 - Steptoe VanHool FMVSS 217 Emergency Exit Requirements 11-25-2024 signed
November 25, 2024
David H. Coburn Steptoe LLP
1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1795
Dear Mr. Coburn:
This responds to your letter dated December 5, 2023, on behalf of Belgium-based bus manufacturer Van Hool NV regarding the emergency exit identification requirements under 49 C.F.R. § 571.217 S5.5.1 for buses other than school buses. You asked whether the requirements under S5.5.1 to designate emergency exits and provide concise operating instructions for these exits may be satisfied by pictograms, without the use of text. This letter responds to that request.
In responding, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) notes that the contents of this letter do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. This letter is only intended to provide clarity regarding existing requirements under the law at the time of signature.
Section 5.5.1 requires in pertinent part:
For buses other than school buses…each emergency exit door shall have the designation “Emergency Door” or “Emergency Exit,” and every other emergency exit shall have the designation “Emergency Exit” followed by concise operating instructions describing each motion necessary to unlatch and open the exit, located within 16cm of the release mechanism.
S5.5.1 provides explicit designation requirements. The use of quotations in the standard indicates that the exact words “Emergency Door” or “Emergency Exit” are necessary for compliance and that a pictogram by itself will not suffice. Thus, a pictogram may not be provided in lieu of text. This position aligns with NHTSA’s earlier interpretation in Letter to Vincent P. Schulze (June 22, 1998).1
With regard to the “concise operating instructions” required by the standard, S5.5.1 does not set forth explicit language that must be used, nor does it otherwise expressly prohibit the use of pictograms, symbols, icons or similar. The standard requires only that the instructions “describ[e] each motion necessary to unlatch and open the exit.” It further provides examples of operating instructions as follows: “(1) Lift to Unlatch, Push to Open; and (2) Lift Handle and Push out to Open.”
1 Available at www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/17175drn (declining the use of a symbol in lieu of words for emergency egress windows).
While the text examples provided in the standard are not exhaustive given the breadth of variation in vehicle emergency exit design, NHTSA emphasizes the need to ensure that passengers can quickly access both the emergency exit and the instructions for the exit’s release mechanism. The agency has noted that “[i]n an emergency, persons are used to finding an emergency exit where they see a label with the designation ‘Emergency Exit.’”2 Moreover, the standard “nowhere draws any distinction between markings designating an exit as an emergency exit and markings setting forth operating instructions for the emergency exit.”3 This interpretation suggests that both the emergency exit designation and the operating instructions were intended to be text-based.
Diluting the emergency egress marking requirements would be consequential to motor vehicle safety.4 At present, the agency has no data to support that a particular set of pictograms5 will be easily and universally understood by bus passengers in the United States. That U.N. Regulation No. 1076 allows for safety sign pictograms and has been accepted in the European Union7 does not inform or guarantee that an American audience will understand and accept the same pictograms.
As you acknowledged, NHTSA intends its policies to both promote international harmonization and avoid unnecessary design restrictions. If a manufacturer wishes to produce vehicles with pictorial emergency egress markings not currently permitted under Standard 217, it may elect to file a petition for rulemaking on the issue.
I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Evita St. Andre of my staff at this address or (617) 494-2767.
Sincerely,
ADAM RAVIV
Adam Raviv Chief Counsel
Dated: 11/25/24
Ref: Standard No. 217
2 Letter to John G. Sims (Jan. 26, 1990), available at www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/nht90-124.
3 Id.
4 See Denial of a Petition for Forest River Inc., 86 FR 56351 (Oct. 8, 2021) (misplacement of the emergency egress labels by 9cm).
5 Van Hool submitted that NHTSA may require that pictograms used to comply with S5.5.1 adhere to either the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 3864-1:2011, paragraph 6.5, or the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard Z535.
6 U.N. Regulation 107, “Concerning the Adoption of Harmonized Technical United Nations Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts which can be Fitted and/or be Used on Wheeled Vehicles and the Conditions for Reciprocal Recognition of Approvals Granted on the Basis of these United Nations,” Revision 8 (Feb. 14, 2023), available at unece.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/R107r8e.pdf
7 Framework Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council (May 30, 2018), available at
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02018R0858-20230730&qid=1699805899877