Interpretation ID: 77-2.9

TYPE: INTERPRETATION-NHTSA

DATE: 04/13/77

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Frank Berndt; NHTSA

TO: Dennis J. Mahr; Attorney at Law

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This responds to your February 23, 1977, letter asking whether Ford Motor Company's record keeping practices conform to the regulations of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Your letter refers to material allegedly destroyed by Ford pertaining to accident and recall information involving headlamp concealment devices in 1967 Mercury Cougars. The NHTSA is unable to ascertain from the information that you have submitted whether or not Ford's record keeping violates our requirements.

The NHTSA implemented on August 20, 1974, a regulation requiring manufacturers to retain for a period of 5 years records generated or acquired after August 15, 1969, concerning motor vehicle malfunctions that may be related to motor vehicle safety (49 CFR 576, Record Retention). Since the recall to which you refer occurred prior to this regulation, it is possible that the identified records were generated of acquired prior to the promulgation of the regulation, and therefore, the destruction of these records would not necessarily mean that Part 576 was violated.

The NHTSA has a public file concerning the headlamp concealment devices referred to in your letter. This file containing 26 pages of information will be sent to you by our Technical Reference Branch under separate cover.