Interpretation ID: nht75-2.4

DATE: 06/11/75

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; J. C. Schultz; NHTSA

TO: Bridgestone Tire Co. of America

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: Please forgive the delay in responding to your requests for interpretations of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Nos. 109 and 119.

Your letter of March 3, 1975, presented the following two questions:

1. Say a person with a vehicle which has Canadian or Mexican license plates is driving this vehicle in the United States. If the tires do not comply with the FMVSS No. 119 is it illegal for this vehicle to be operated in the United States Territories?

Under Part 12 of the Customs Regulations, 19 CFR Sec. 12.80, a person may import such tires if he files a declaration that the importation is primarily for his personal use for a period not exceeding one year and that he will not resell the tires within the United States. For persons regularly entering the United States at the Canadian or Mexican borders, there is a special provision for simplifying the declaration procedure. The relevant portion of the regulation is Section 12.80(b)(2)(v) (copy enclosed).

2. Say a driver is vacationing in Canada or Mexico and receives an unrepairable puncture on one tire. If this new tire does not comply with the FMVSS No. 119, is it legal for him to re-enter the United States with this tire on his vehicle (Illegible Word) run the tire for the remainder of its tire life?

It is not legal for the driver to reenter the United States with this tire. Section 108(a)(1)(A) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 prohibits the importation of such non-complying tires, with certain exceptions specified in Section 108(b). None of the exceptions is applicable to the situation which you have described.

Your letter of April 18, 1975, requested clarification of the testing requirements resulting from the use of the word "any" in the definition of "test rim" in Standard No. 109. That definition is as follows:

"Test rim" means, with reference to a tire to be tested, any rim that is listed as appropriate for use with that tire in accordance with S4.4 . . .

Standard No. 109 does not specify the testing which you must do; it does specify the performance levels which tires must meet when tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for compliance. You have presented the example of tire size JR78-15, for which five rims are approved by the Tire and Ram Association. In this situation, each tire must be capable of meeting all of the Standard's performance requirements with whichever of the five rims the NHTSA chooses to use in its compliance testing. While the surest way for you to be confident of compliance would be to conduct tests with all five rims, you are not legally obligated to do so. The legal requirement is that you exercise due care in assuring yourself that, when tested by the NHTSA with a rim chosen by the NHTSA from among the five possibilities, the tire will meet the specified performance levels. You may do this by whatever means you determine to be reliable and necessary.

The letter of March 14, 1975, from Mr. Ohgiya of the Japan Automobile Tire Manufacturer's Association, Inc., was responded to on May 22, 1975, by Mr. E. T. Driver of this agency. I have enclosed a copy.