Interpretation ID: 23345ogm
Jean-Yves Le Bouthillier
Standards Manager
Les Enterprises Michel Corbeil Inc.
304 12th Avenue, Luarentides (Quebec) Canada J0R 1C0
Dear Mr. Bouthillier:
This replies to your letter regarding certification of seats and their accompanying seat belts for compliance with the requirements of Federal motor vehicle safety standards. I regret the delay in responding. You indicate that your company manufactures school buses and wishes to equip these buses with seat belts attached to the seat frames of the passenger seats. Your letter further indicates your understanding that Standard No. 222, "School Bus Seating and Crash Protection," requires that school buses with seat belts must conform to certain portions of Standards No. 207 through No. 210.
You ask about the means you intend to use to verify that the design of the seats and the seating systems complies with the requirements of the aforementioned standards. Your letter states that in order to verify the design, Corbeil intends to build a model or "mock-up" of a portion of the section of the vehicle using the materials and components that will be used in production vehicles. The "model" or "mock up" will be used for testing rather than a complete vehicle. Corbeil wishes to know if this use of a model for testing purposes is acceptable.
Background
Each of this agency's safety standards specifies the test conditions and procedures that this agency will use to evaluate the performance of the vehicle or equipment being tested for compliance with the particular safety standard. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration follows these specified test procedures and conditions when conducting its compliance testing. However, as your letter recognizes, manufacturers are not required to test their products only in the manner specified in the relevant safety standard, or even to test the product at all, as their basis for certifying that the product complies with all relevant standards. A manufacturer may choose any valid means of evaluating its products to determine whether the vehicle or equipment will comply with the safety standards when tested by the agency according to the procedures specified in the standard and to provide a basis for its certification of compliance.
If the agency has reason to believe that an apparent noncompliance exists in a vehicle or item of equipment, the manufacturer is asked to show the basis for its certification that the vehicle or equipment complies with the relevant safety standard or standards. If in fact there is a noncompliance, the manufacturer will have to recall the product to bring it into compliance at no charge to the customer and will be subject to civil penalties unless it can establish that it had no reason to know despite exercising "reasonable care" in the design and manufacture of the product (through actual testing, computer simulation, engineering analysis, or other means) to ensure compliance, that the vehicle or item of equipment did not in fact comply with the safety standards (49 U.S.C. 30112(b)(2)(A)). In addition, a manufacturer is prohibited from selling or making available for sale any vehicle that does not comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Please note that, while the exercise of "reasonable care" may relieve a manufacturer of liability for civil penalties in connection with the manufacture and sale of noncomplying vehicles, it does not relieve a manufacturer of the responsibility to discontinue sales of vehicles or notify purchasers of the noncompliance and remedy the noncompliance without charge to the purchasers, if either the manufacturer or this agency determines that vehicles do not comply with all applicable safety standards.
Discussion
Your letter refers to the requirements of Standard No. 207 in the context of school bus seats. S4.2 of Standard No. 207, which sets forth the general performance requirements for seats, does not apply to side-facing seats or passenger seats on a bus. As you are aware, Standard No. 222 applies to school bus seating systems. S5 of Standard No. 222 incorporates certain provisions of Standards Nos. 208, 209 and 210.
Your letter asks whether a seat manufacturer may base its certification on a test performed with the seat attached to a representative section of a vehicle rather than the completed vehicle. As a legal matter, the standards in question apply to vehicles, rather than to seats, so the compliance and certification responsibilities are borne by the vehicle manufacturer rather than the seat manufacturer. However, we realize that certification testing is often performed by the manufacturers of components.
As noted above, manufacturers certifying products must exercise "reasonable care" when doing so. If performed correctly, testing through use of a representative model or incomplete vehicle may meet this "reasonable care" standard. However, I cannot provide you with any assurance that the procedure you describe would be sufficient to demonstrate "reasonable care." This, in effect, is a request for a determination of whether a vehicle manufacturer's reliance on the fact that the seat and seat attachments did not fail when an incomplete vehicle or partial model of the complete vehicle is used would constitute "reasonable care" in assuring that the completed vehicle complied with the standard. This agency has long said that it is unable to judge what efforts would constitute "reasonable care" in advance of the actual circumstances in which a noncompliance occurs. What constitutes "reasonable care" in a particular case depends on all relevant facts, including such things as the limitations of current technology, the availability of test equipment, the size of the manufacturer, and, above all, the diligence exercised by the manufacturer.
If you have any other questions, please contact Otto Matheke of my staff at this address or by phone at (202) 366-5253.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Glassman
Chief Counsel
Ref:207
d.5/24/02