Interpretation ID: nht89-1.68

TYPE: INTERPRETATION-NHTSA

DATE: 04/05/89

FROM: ERIKA Z. JONES -- CHIEF COUNSEL NHTSA

TO: MILTON GURNY -- HEIN, SMITH, BEREZIN, MALOOF & SPINELLA

TITLE: NONE

ATTACHMT: LETTER DATED 12/16/88 FROM MILTON GURNEY TO JOAN CLAYBROOK -- NHTSA, RE SCHWANEWEDE VS MARBELL INC. ET AL, FILE NO 34577, OCC 2936

TEXT: Dear Mr. Gurny:

This responds to your letter asking whether a 1975 Chevrolet Impala was required to have lap and shoulder belts installed in it. I regret the delay in responding.

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.; the Safety Act) authorizes this agency to issue safety standards applicable to new motor vehicles and new items of motor vehicle equipment. We have exercised this authority to es tablish Standard No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection (49 CFR @ 571.208). Standard No. 208 required all 1975 model year cars to either be equipped with:

a. an automatic occupant protection system, such as air bags or automatic safety belts, or

b. lap and shoulder belts at both front outboard seating positions and either lap belts or lap and shoulder belts at all other seating positions.

Section 108(a)(1)(A) of the Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 1397(a)(1)(A)) provides that no person shall "manufacture for sale, sell, offer for sale, or introduce or deliver for introduction in interstate commerce, or import into the United States, any motor vehic le . . . manufactured on or after the date any Federal motor vehicle safety standard takes effect under this title unless it is in conformity with with such standard except as provided in subsection (b) of this section." This language prohibited any pers on from manufacturing, delivering, selling or importing any 1975 Chevrolet Impala that did not have lap and shoulder belts or an automatic occupant protection system installed at both front outboard seating positions.

However, section 108(b)(1) of the Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 1397(b)(1)) provides that the prohibitions in section 108(a)(1)(A) "shall not apply to the sale, offer for sale, or the introduction or delivery for introduction in interstate commerce of any motor vehicle after the first purchase of it is in good faith for purposes other than resale." In other

words, once the 1975 Impala was sold and delivered to its first retail purchaser, the vehicle was no longer required by Federal law to comply with Standard No. 208.

After the first purchase of a vehicle in good faith for purposes other than resale, the only provision in Federal law that refers to a vehicle's continuing compliance with an applicable safety standard is set forth in section 108(a)(2)(A) of the Safety A ct (15 U.S.C. 1397(a)(2)(A)). That section provides that:

No manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or motor vehicle repair business shall knowingly render inoperative, in whole or in part, any device or element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle . . . in compliance with an applicable Federal motor veh icle safety standard, . . .

This section would prohibit any manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or repair business from removing a lap and shoulder belt that was originally installed in the motor vehicle, unless the business replaced the safety belt with another lap and shoulder bel t. Please note that this statutory language does not impose any obligations on individual vehicle owners to avoid "rendering inoperative" their vehicle's compliance with a safety standard. Thus, any person may remove the safety belts from his or her ow n vehicle without violating Federal law.

Further, the "render inoperative" provision does not impose an affirmative duty on the listed commercial entities to replace equipment that was previously removed by someone else. Thus, if a car dealer purchases, as a used car, a 1975 Chevrolet Impala t hat was originally equipped with lap and shoulder belts and if those belts are not present at the time of such purchase, Federal law does not require the dealer to install safety belts in the care before reselling it.

The individual States have authority to regulate the modifications that can be made to vehicles by individual owners and to require that used cars have certain equipment installed when they are sold. You may wish to contact the appropriate State Departm ent of Motor Vehicles to learn if any applicable laws or regulations were violated in this instance.

I hope this information is useful. Please feel free to contact this office if you have any further questions on this topic.

Sincerely,