Interpretation ID: nht78-3.35

DATE: 11/29/78

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Joseph J. Levin Jr.; NHTSA

TO: British Standards Institution

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: Please excuse the long delay in responding to your letter about materials incorporated by reference in the Federal motor vehicle safety standards. Your primary concern is the correct version of the referenced materials to be used in conducting compliance tests if the materials are subject to change.

As you noted, Part 571.5 (49 CFR 571.5) of our regulations provides, in pertinent part, "Materials subject to change are incorporated as they are in effect on the date of adoption of this part, unless the reference to them provides otherwise." Almost all safety standards incorporating materials by reference specifically refer by month and year to a particular version of the referenced material. Therefore, the specified version should be used for compliance test purposes, even if the organization that adopted the reference material has published an updated version. If the reference does not identify a specific version, the version in effect when the safety standard was issued should be used for compliance testing.

As you pointed out, many of the voluntary industry standards do not have an "effective date." To determine which version was "in effect" on the date the Federal safety standard incorporating the material was issued, the agency looks to the version adopted by the organization that developed the material as of that date. For example, the Society of Automotive Engineers Standards do not have an effective date, but they do have an identifying month and year which indicates when the latest version was approved by the appropriate SAE approval body. The agency would look at that identifying month and year to determine which version was in effect on the issuance date of the safety standard or amendment.

Regarding your request for a list of the effective dates of the Federal safety standards, please be aware that the standards are being continually amended and the new provisions have their own effective dates. Thus, there is no single effective date for each standard. The enclosed computer printout provides a listing of the effective dates of the safety standards and their amendments as of July 1978. You are correct in your assumption that the safety standards only apply to vehicles manufactured on or after the effective date of relevant standard.

Finally, the effective date of a safety standard does not have any bearing on which edition of materials incorporated by reference is applicable. The version used for compliance testing is the version specifically refered to in the standard by date or, if there is no date specification, the version which was in effect on the date of issuance of the safety standard.

If you have any further questions, I will be pleased to answer them.

SINCERELY, British Standards Institution

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of the Chief Counsel U S Department of Transportation

Date: February 7, 1978

Dear Sirs

MATTER INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS

A number of FMVSS's in Sub-part B of 49 CFR 571 make direct reference to one or more published specifications (such as those published by ANSI, SAE, ASTM, etc.); some of these specifications, which are sometimes termed "primary reference standards", make reference to further published specifications. Most of these specifications ae subject to periodic review and either amendment of re-confirmation; many of them (particularly those published by the SAE) have in fact been amended since the effective date of the relevant FMVSS.

We would greatly appreciate your guidance on the ground rules for determining the edition of a referenced specification (whether "primary" or otherwise) that is applicable for conformity testing purposes.

We have studied 49 CFR 571.5 and note the statement that" . . . materials subject to change are incorporated as they are in effect on the date of adoption of this part, unless the reference to them provides otherwise". However, we need to know:

(a) the "date of adoption" of 49 CFR 571, and

(b) whether the words "as they are in effect" has a precise meaning, bearing in mind that voluntary standards - unlike regulatory standards - do not normally have an "effective date".

There is a related problem on which we would also request your guidance. Section 103(c) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act requires that an effective date shall be specified for each FMVSS. But, on studying individual FMVSS's, we cannot see where the effective date is specified - at least, not in the CFR-published texts (although the date does appear in the FR-published texts).

Unfortunately, we discard the FR-published version once it is incorporated in the CFR volume, so we are not able to make a retrospective analysis of all FMVSS's to determine their effective dates. Do you have a list of effective dates that you could let us have, and can you confirm that vehicles or equipment manufactured on or after the relevant effective date must comply with the requirements? And does the effective date of an FMVSS have any bearing on the edition of a referenced specification that is applicable?

We apologise for troubling you on this matter but would be most grateful for your guidance.

G I WHISTON Coordinator - International Information