Interpretation ID: aiam3892
United States Senate
Washington
DC 20510;
Dear Senator Durenberger: Thank you for your recent letter on behalf of your constituent, Mr Pius J. Lacher, the Superintendent of Schools in Mora, Minnesota. Your letter has been referred to my office for reply.; As I understand Mr. Lacher's letter, the Mora public schools would lik to use 12 and 15 passenger vans to transport children to and from extra- curricular activities. Mr. Lacher believes that he is restricted by our Federal regulations to using only large, 72-passenger buses for this purposes. He urges a change in the regulations.; I appreciate this opportunity to clarify our regulations. In thi letter, I would like to explain how our regulations might affect Mora's choice of buses. Before I begin, let me explain that our regulations define a 'bus' as a motor vehicle designed to carry 10 or more passengers. Our regulations require manufacturers and dealers to certify that new buses comply with all applicable motor vehicle safety standards, including our school bus safety standards, when these vehicles are sold to schools.; Our agency has two sets of regulations, issued under different Acts o Congress, that could affect Mora's choice of buses. The first of these, the motor vehicle safety standards issued by our agency under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-563, 15 U.S.C. 1381-1426) apply to the manufacture and sale of new motor vehicles. In a 1974 amendment to the Act, Congress expressly directed us to issue standards on specific aspects of school bus safety, including emergency exits, seating systems, windows and windshields, and bus structure. The standards we issued became effective April 1, 1977, and apply to each school bus manufactured on or after that date. If Mora plans to buy a *new* bus for use as an activity bus, the manufacturer and dealer must certify that the bus complies with the motor vehicle safety standards applicable to school buses. New conventional 12 or 15 passenger vans that are not manufactured to comply with these standards could not be sold for use as school buses.; The Vehicle Safety Act does not prohibit Mora from using vehicles tha carry more than 10 persons. There might, however, be impediments under Minnesota State law. We administer a set of guidelines for state highway safety programs under the authority of the Highway Safety Act (Public Law 89-564, 23 U.S.C. 401-408). These guidelines, called Highway Safety Programs Standards, cover a wide range of subjects, including school buses. Individual states have chosen to adopt some or all of the guidelines as their own policies governing their highway safety program. Highway Safety Program Standard No. 17 (HSPS 17), specifies that a bus used to transport 16 or less students must either be identified with the words 'School Bus' and comply with the standard's requirements for color, mirrors and signal lamps, or be devoid of all of these characteristics. As it happens, however, a bus sold for use as a school bus is required by the Vehicle Safety Act to have warning lights and mirrors (as well as many other safety features). Because it must have this equipment, a 12 or 15 passenger bus in a State whose law fully incorporates HSPS 17 would have to be painted and signed as a school bus. For a state that has adopted this standard as its own policy, these specifications apply to activity buses as well as to the buses used for daily transportation.; I want to stress that HSPS 17 will affect Mora only if Minnesota ha adopted it and if Minnesota accepts our view that the specifications apply to activity buses. If Minnesota chooses to exempt activity buses from being painted, signed, and equipped as school buses, we might disagree with the wisdom of its decision but we would not insist on compliance with HSPS 17 to the extent of taking action against the State. Congress has given us discretion under the Highway Safety Act not to insist that a State comply with every requirement of the highway safety standards. While we have stressed the importance of a strong pupil transportation program, consistent with HSPS 17, we have not insisted that the States comply with every feature of the standard.; Having said this, however, I would like to restate the importance tha our agency attaches to the use of safe buses to transport children. It remains the agency's position that a yellow school bus meeting the motor vehicle safety standards is the safest means of transportation for school children. In the years since buses began to be manufactured with these safety features, there has been a marked improvement in school bus safety. Mora should consider these safety features when the school district decides to buy their school vehicles. Please let me know if you have any further questions.; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel