Interpretation ID: 19396.drn
Mr. Bob Webb
Access Industries, Inc
2509 Summer Avenue
Memphis, TN 38112-2627
Dear Mr. Webb:
This responds to your letter to Gayle Dalrymple, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Safety Standards Engineer, regarding what type of new 15-passenger van, equipped to transport special needs children, must be sold to transport children in a parochial day care program. I regret the delay in responding.
Some background information would be helpful in answering your question. NHTSA is authorized to issue and enforce Federal motor vehicle safety standards applicable to new motor vehicles. Our statute at 49 U.S.C. 30112 requires any person selling or leasing a new vehicle to sell or lease a vehicle that meets all applicable standards. Accordingly, persons selling or leasing a new "school bus" must sell or lease a vehicle that meets the safety standards applicable to school buses.
Our statute defines a "schoolbus" as any vehicle that is designed for carrying a driver and more than 10 passengers and which, NHTSA decides, is likely to be "used significantly" to transport "preprimary, primary, and secondary" students to or from school or related events. 49 U.S.C. 30125. By regulation, the capacity threshold for school buses corresponds to that of buses -- vehicles designed for carrying more than ten (10) persons. For example, a 15-person van that is likely to be used significantly to transport students is a "school bus." Our statute does not differentiate between public and parochial schools.
The requirement described above to sell certified school buses does not apply to sales of buses to day care centers where the center provides solely custodial care and transports toddlers to and from the center. We do not generally consider such centers to be "schools" under our statute.
However, in recent interpretation letters to NHTSA, the agency was asked to address situations where non-educational institutions (such as day care centers) are procuring buses to transport children to or from schools. When a regular (non-occasional) use of the bus is to transport school children "to or from school" or school-related activities, the dealer who sells or leases a new vehicle with a capacity to carry more than ten persons to a day care center must sell or lease a school bus. There are van-based vehicles, completed by school bus manufacturers, that are certified to those standards. In contrast, if a day care center will not use the new bus to take children to or from school or school-related activities, the dealer is not required to sell or lease a school bus.
One of those letters involved a dealer selling a new 15-passenger van to a child care facility which planned to significantly use the van for school transportation. The letter is dated July 23, 1998, to Mr. Don Cote of Northside Ford in San Antonio, Texas (copy enclosed). In that letter, we explained that a dealer selling or leasing a new van for such use must sell or lease only buses that meet Federal motor vehicle safety standards for school buses, even when the purchaser is a child care facility.(1)
You should also check State law to see if there are regulations about how a day care center must transport children. In general, NHTSA's safety standards do not regulate the use of motor vehicles, but each State has the authority to set its own standards regarding the use of motor vehicles, including school buses.
In closing, we wish to emphasize that school buses are one of the safest forms of transportation in this country, and that we therefore strongly recommend that all buses that are used to transport school children be certified as meeting NHTSA's school bus safety standards. Further, using 15-person vans that do not meet NHTSA's school bus standards to transport students could result in increased liability in the event of a crash. Since such liability would be determined by State law, you may wish to consult with your attorney and insurance carrier for advice on this issue.
I hope this information is helpful. For more information about the safety features of a school bus, I am enclosing NHTSA's publication: "School Bus Safety: Safe Passage for America's Children." I am also enclosing NHTSA's February 1999 "Guideline for the Safe Transportation of Pre-school Age Children in School Buses." If you have any further questions please feel free to contact Dorothy Nakama of my staff at this address or by telephone at (202) 366-2992.
Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
Enclosures
ref:VSA#571.3
d.5/20/99
1. Again, please note that NHTSA has never stated that day care facilities that provide only custodial care are "schools." NHTSA's laws do not affect new bus sales to child care facilities that are not significantly involved in transporting school aged children "to or from" school. The Cote letter could affect the facility if it is involved in transporting children to or from school.