Interpretation ID: nht72-6.4

DATE: 03/09/72

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Lawrence R. Schneider; NHTSA

TO: Baltimore Gas and Electric Company

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of January 28, 1972, to the Administrator, in which you questioned the applicability of Federal seatbelt standards to the trucks operated by your company.

Your argument consists of two parts. In the first place you state that the trucks are not involved in interstate(Illegible Word), as that term is used in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, and that the standard therefore does not apply. Secondly, with respect to the crew compartments in these trucks, you state that Standard 208 would not apply in any event, since the seats. In these compartments are auxiliary seating accommodations," and are therefore not required to have belts.

We are not altogether certain whether you are primarily concerned with the installation of seatbelts in your existing fleet of trucks, or with the installation of belts in new trucks which you are planning to acquire. Our authority under section 103 of the Act extends only to the regulation of new vehicles. We cannot require vehicles manufactured prior to the effective date of a standard to conform to that standard. To the extent that you are concerned with the company's existing fleet, therefore, you should address your question to the Dureau of Motor Carrier Safety, which has recently adopted regulations requiring installation of seatbelts in vehicles in the interstate commerce. (49CFR@393.93)

With respect to new vehicles, the "interstate commrce" referred to in the Act does not, as you inferred, refer to the purpose for which the vehicles are to be used. If it did, it would not cover the vast majority of vehicles in the country, which are passenger cars not used for the purposes of commerce, interstate or otherwise. It is perfectly clear from the legislative history of the Act that Congress intended to cover passenger cars. In our opinion, Congress was referring to interstate commerce in the broad Constitutional sense, which includes all transportation on the public roads of this country. In that sense, any vehicle introduced onto a public road is part of the stream of interstate commerce. It also includes the chain of manufacturing and distribution of the vehicles, which invariably involves transactions spreading over many states. Thus, the Act and the standards issued thereunder apply to your vehicles even though they may not be used in commerce that has been directly regulated by agencies such as the Interstate Commerce Commission. They will therefore be required by Standard 208 to have seatbelts at all designated seating positions.

Despite the apparent differences between the design of crew compartment seating and that of other seating accommodations, we cannot consider the crew compartment seats to be "auxiliary seating accommodations." It appears from your letter that the trucks are expressly designed to carry passengers as well as equipment, and that the primary, if not the only, function of the crew compartment is to carry passengers. Without the crew aboard, presumably, the usefulness of the truck would be impaired. Since the seats are essential to the use of the vehicle and since the passenger carrying function of the compartment is not secondary to some other use, it follows that the seats are not auxiliary and that they should be considered "designated seating positions" as defined in 49CFR@571.3. In new vehicles, therefore, the crew compartment must be equipped with seatbelts.