Interpretation ID: nht89-2.16

TYPE: INTERPRETATION-NHTSA

DATE: 06/21/89

FROM: STEPHEN P. WOOD -- NHTSA ACTING CHIEF COUNSEL

TO: JOHN WOODDELL -- BRUER & WOODDELL, P.C.

TITLE: NONE

ATTACHMT: LETTER DATED 04/28/89 FROM JOHN WOODDELL TO NHTSA, RE INTERPRETATION OF STANDARD 208 AS APPLIED TO 1978 DODGE RAMCHARGER; OCC 3474

TEXT: Dear Mr. Wooddell:

This responds to your letter asking whether a 1978 Dodge Ramcharger was required to have lap/shoulder belts installed in it.

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). As Mr. Hunter of our Rulemaking Division indicated in his telephone conversation with you, section S4.2.2 of Standard No. 208 set forth applicable requirements for 1978 multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs) with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or less.

The requirements that apply to the particular 1978 Dodge Ramcharger in question depend on its configuration. In your letter, you identified the 1978 Dodge Ramcharger in question as "a two door vehicle with a hard top and enclosed sides." Assuming that t he hardtop on the vehicle was not removable, the 1978 Ramcharger in question would have been required to be equipped with either:

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

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

If the hardtop on the vehicle was removable, the Ramcharger in question could qualify as a "convertible" or an "open-body type vehicle." Any 1978 MPVs with a GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less that qualified as a convertible or an open-body type vehicle were permitted to meet the requirements of S4.2.1.2 of Standard No. 208. Section S4.2.1.2 required subject MPVs to have either lap belts or lap/shoulder belts installed at each designated seating position, including front outboard ones. If the 1978 Ramcharg er in question qualified as a "convertible" or "open-body

type vehicle," the vehicle would have been permitted to have lap belts installed at the front outboard 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 such standard except as provided in subsection (b) of this section." This language prohibited any person fr om manufacturing, delivering, selling or importing any 1978 Dodge Ramcharger that did not have the required 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 in good faith for purposes other than resale." In other words, once the 1978 Ramcharger 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/shoulder belt that was originally required to be installed in the motor vehicle, unless the business replaced the safety belt with another lap/shoul der belt. 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 own 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 vehicle, a 1978 Dodge Ramcharg er that was originally required to be equipped with lap/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 vehicle 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 vehicles have certain equipment, such as safety belts, installed when they are sold. You may wish to contact th e appropriate State Department 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,