Interpretation ID: nht73-5.41

DATE: 11/02/73

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Robert L. Carter; NHTSA

TO: Green Bus Lines, Inc.

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your letters of July 30 and August 21, 1973, concerning the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 205, Glazing Materials, for materials used in windshields.

(Illegible Word) understand and share your concern over the damage and the hazards caused by vandalism toward buses. Standard No. 205 currently prohibits the use of plastics in windshields simply because today's commercial plastics, including the one for which you enclosed a brochure, cannot meet the abrasion resistance test specified in the standard. As long as windshield wipers are used, we are of the opinion that this requirement is essential. We hope that glazing manufacturers will develop materials that will protect against the problems you have described, while at the same time meeting the necessary performance requirements. When such materials are developed, we, of course, would amend the standard as necessary to permit their use.