[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 217 (Thursday, November 9, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 56554-56559]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-27781]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. 74-14; Notice 97]
RIN 2127--AG14


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Air bags are now standard equipment in millions of passenger 
cars, light trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans and widely 
regarded to be a noteworthy safety advance, especially in higher speed 
crashes. However, air bags--even air bags with a lap/shoulder belt 
being used--are not a cure-all for every type of injury in crashes. The 
agency is aware of situations in which current air bag designs have 
undesired side effects. These include situations in which an air bag 
appears to have contributed to serious injuries and even death to 
vehicle occupants.
    This document is intended to inform the public about NHTSA's 
actions to minimize these adverse side effects and to invite the public 
to share information and views with the agency.

DATES: Comments must be received by December 26, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to the docket and notice number of 
this notice and be submitted to: Docket Section, Room 5109, National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW, 
Washington, DC 20590. (Docket Room hours are 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday 
through Friday.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen R. Kratzke, Office of Vehicle 
Safety Standards, NPS-10, National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. Mr. 
Kratzke can be reached by telephone at (202) 366-5203 or by fax at 
(202) 366-4329.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Air bags are being offered on more and 
more light vehicles (i.e., cars, pickup trucks, vans, and sport 
utility vehicles). A decade ago, very few vehicles offered air bags 
and those that did were almost exclusively expensive luxury cars. 
In response to public demand, nearly every 1996 model year 
passenger car will be equipped with dual air bags as standard 
equipment. Installation of air bags is being accomplished in 
advance of federal statutory requirements that dual air bags be 
provided in all 1998 and later model year cars, and all 1999 and 
later model year light trucks and vans.

    Air bags have an impressive overall performance record. Since 1987, 
they are estimated to have saved 911 lives. NHTSA estimates that in 
1994 alone, air bags saved 374 lives. The agency fully expects these 
numbers to continue to increase.
    The agency emphasizes that the presence of an air bag does not mean 
that it is less important for occupants to use their safety belts. Air 
bags are supplemental restraints. The primary means of occupant 
restraint, the safety belt, works in all types of crashes and is 
particularly effective in preventing ejection, where the air bag has 
limited benefits. NHTSA estimates that in 1994, safety belts saved 
almost 9,200 lives and prevented more than 211,000 moderate 

[[Page 56555]]
to critical injuries. The combination of wearing safety belts and 
having an air bag installed at a seating position provides vehicle 
occupants with maximum safety protection in all types of crashes.
    Applying appropriate scientific techniques, NHTSA has been 
carefully monitoring the real world performance of air bags, including 
any side effects, for more than a decade. The agency published an 
Evaluation Plan for front-seat occupant protection in January 1990 (55 
FR 1586; January 17, 1990), which calls for periodic interim analyses 
of effectiveness (a final evaluation of effectiveness will not be 
possible until after air bags have been standard equipment for some 
time on high production volume cars). An Interim Evaluation Report, 
including analyses of fatality and injury reductions, was published in 
June 1992. The agency also submitted a Report to Congress on this 
subject in November 1992. The agency's analyses indicated that air bags 
are producing benefits for vehicle occupants. NHTSA plans to update its 
interim analyses of effectiveness early in 1996.
    NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) provides 
comprehensive, high quality data on highway crashes. These data are 
used to relate human, vehicle, environmental, and roadway 
characteristics to crash frequency and the severity of injuries 
sustained in those crashes. NCSA has developed several programs for 
providing these data. The Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) 
provides basic information on all highway crashes in the U.S. in which 
one or more people die of their injuries within 30 days of a crash. The 
National Accident Sampling System (NASS) provides information from 
investigations of a statistical sample of police reported crashes at 
all levels of injury severity. As part of NASS, detailed investigations 
of 5,000 highway crashes are conducted annually to provide information 
on crash dynamics, injury mechanisms, and consequences of those 
mechanisms, and to support occupant protection research and rulemaking. 
To supplement the NASS system, the Special Crash Investigation Program 
conducts from 50 to 75 in-depth investigations per year, concentrating 
on crashes involving air bag deployments. Paper copies of individual 
investigations and electronic data files are available to the public. 
For more information contact NCSA at (202) 366-5394.
    In addition, NHTSA's Office of Research and Development has a 
number of on-going projects examining specific air bag issues. A 
discussion of these projects can be found in the technical paper 
discussed later in this notice.
    There are certain situations in which air bags can have adverse 
side effects. As more and more vehicles are equipped with them, these 
side effects have become better known to researchers. The agency wants 
to act expeditiously to ensure that these adverse side effects of air 
bags are minimized or eliminated.
    This notice summarizes what NHTSA knows about side effects of air 
bags and how it plans to minimize them in the future. NHTSA is also 
asking manufacturers, insurers, members of the medical community, and 
any other interested members of the public to share information about 
air bag designs or experience.
    In a frontal crash, the occupant moves forward toward the 
windshield and instrument panel prior to air bag deployment. The air 
bag inflator must produce enough energy to inflate the air bag fully in 
about 25 milliseconds to ``cushion'' the occupant before the occupant 
strikes the vehicle interior. The energy necessary to inflate the air 
bag in such a short time interval can cause injury or even fatality to 
an occupant who is not properly restrained, especially to children, 
given their small stature and light weight.
    The table below shows, in no particular order, the types of 
situations in which the agency has some information suggesting there 
may be a risk of serious injury to vehicle occupants from the air bag.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Seating position of    Probable cause of 
       Group affected             primary risk             problem      
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unrestrained Small Statured   Driver Position.....  Proximity to Air Bag
 and/or Older People.                                at Time of         
                                                     Deployment.        
Infants in Rear-Facing Child  Passenger Position..  Proximity to Air Bag
 Restraints.                                         at Time of         
                                                     Deployment.        
Children Unrestrained in      Passenger Position..  Proximity to Air Bag
 Front Seat.                                         at Time of         
                                                     Deployment.        
Out-of-Position Occupants...  Driver and Passenger  Proximity to Air Bag
                               Position.             at Time of         
                                                     Deployment         
Persons with Disabilities...  Driver Position.....  Proximity to Air Bag
                                                     at Time of         
                                                     Deployment;        
                                                     Adaptive Equipment 
                                                     between Air Bag and
                                                     Driver; Safety     
                                                     Features in Vehicle
                                                     Must be Modified to
                                                     Accommodate        
                                                     Adaptive Equipment.
Persons Experiencing          Driver and Passenger  Unknown; Under      
 Extremity Injuries.           Position.             Study.             
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It appears from this table that the primary task is to reduce the 
risk to occupants who are very near the air bag at the time of 
deployment. Such actions, however, won't necessarily help persons with 
disabilities.
    NHTSA has already taken steps to address the problem of infants in 
rear-facing child seats by warning parents of air bag/infant restraint 
interaction problems through consumer advisories and warnings on infant 
restraints, on sun visors, and in owner's manuals. NHTSA's position is 
that rear-facing child seats should be used only in the rear seat of a 
vehicle with a passenger-side air bag.\1\ In addition, on May 23, 1995, 
NHTSA published a final rule amending Standard No. 208, Occupant Crash 
Protection, to allow manufacturers the option of installing a manual 
device that motorists could use to deactivate the front passenger-side 
air bag in vehicles in which infant restraints can only fit in the 
front seat.

    \1\ A complete description of various steps NHTSA has taken to 
address this problem can be found in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 
published on October 7, 1994 (59 FR 51158).
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    For air bag vehicles already on the road or being produced in this 
model year, the agency's primary efforts will be directed at better 
educating the public about the characteristics of air bags and the 
steps which the public can take to minimize the likelihood of 
experiencing adverse side effects from air bags. On October 27, 1995, 
the agency issued a consumer advisory focusing on preventing children 
from being injured. The consumer advisory recommends three specific 
steps: (1) always restrain children properly, (2) put them in the back 
seat whenever possible, and (3) 

[[Page 56556]]
when they must ride in the front seat, move the seat back as far as 
possible--away from the air bag. NHTSA will continue to work with state 
safety officials, national safety and medical organizations, vehicle 
manufacturers, insurers, and interested citizens to educate the public 
in this area.
    In addition, anyone with knowledge of an unusual injury or fatality 
resulting from a low speed or other crash involving an air bag-equipped 
vehicle is urged to report this information to NHTSA's Auto Safety 
Hotline at (800) 424-9393 or (202) 366-0123.
    For vehicles manufactured far enough in the future to incorporate 
significant design changes, NHTSA believes that there will be 
technological enhancements available that could minimize the unintended 
side effects of air bags. Vehicle manufacturers and air bag suppliers 
are now working on highly advanced air bags, often called ``smart 
bags.'' These smart bags include advanced technologies for occupant 
sensing, phased deployment of air bags, and so forth. These 
technologies will be able to perform a number of functions, including 
preventing air bag deployment when they sense that an occupant is too 
close to the point of deployment, inflating the air bag at different 
speeds according to the severity of the crash, and preventing the bag 
from deploying in the absence of an occupant at that seating position. 
Based on discussions with suppliers and vehicle manufacturers, NHTSA 
anticipates these types of smart bags will eventually be widely 
incorporated into production. The agency will step up its monitoring of 
manufacturer efforts to use smart bags, especially the technologies 
being explored, the practicability and reliability of smart bag 
systems, and the timetables for availability of smart bag systems.
    While NHTSA anticipates that these smart bag systems will 
substantially minimize adverse side effects of air bags in the not too 
distant future, this still leaves the question of what can be done in 
addition to public education for the near future. Manufacturers may be 
able to make adjustments to existing air bag systems. Further, NHTSA 
may be able to make temporary adjustments to its regulations if it is 
shown to be necessary to enable manufacturers to minimize any adverse 
side effects during this period.
    For example, Ford has requested that NHTSA amend its crash testing 
procedures in Standard No. 208. The standard currently requires test 
dummies to be protected in a 30 mile per hour (mph) crash both when 
wearing safety belts and when not wearing the belts (i.e., protected by 
the air bag alone). Ford asked that the test speed for the unbelted 
dummies be lowered to 25 mph, while the test speed for the belted 
dummies be raised to 35 mph. According to Ford, this change would allow 
manufacturers to better ``tune'' the interaction between the air bag 
and the safety belt so as to optimize the protection afforded to 
occupants who use their belts. Ford stated that the current testing 
procedure forces manufacturers to base occupant protection designs 
solely on the air bag, rather than the interaction between the air bag 
and the belt. Ford believes that such a change can reduce air bag-
induced injuries.
    In response to this request, NHTSA prepared a detailed preliminary 
technical assessment of the issues presented in Ford's request. This 
technical assessment sets forth the agency's knowledge with respect to 
injuries from air bags. To help move public discussion forward in this 
area, NHTSA has placed copies of its technical assessment of the Ford 
request in the public docket for this rulemaking. Interested members of 
the public are invited to comment on the Ford proposal and to review 
this assessment to gain a better understanding both of what is known 
and of what is not known by NHTSA about injuries from deploying air 
bags, as well as the agency's plans for further research and data 
analyses in this area. Copies of the technical assessment can be 
obtained from the Docket Section at the address given above or by 
telephone at (202) 366-4949.
    The agency hopes that this request for comments will help the 
agency obtain the information needed to make reasoned decisions about 
whether some regulatory changes are needed for the interim period, 
whether some simple technological fixes are available to minimize side 
effects until smart bags become a reality, or whether other activities, 
such as consumer information, offer the best chance of effectively 
minimizing these side effects.
    Persons with disabilities may have problems with air bags in 
addition to those that result primarily from their proximity to the air 
bag at the time of deployment. While many drivers with disabilities may 
have a problem because of having to sit very near the steering wheel, 
they may also face unique problems because of the special adaptive 
equipment needed to allow them to drive. This adaptive equipment may 
reduce the protection afforded by air bags by interfering with their 
deployment. In September 1994, the agency issued a consumer advisory 
cautioning drivers with disabilities not to use steering control 
devices mounted on a bar installed across the steering wheel hub (a 
``spanner bar'').
    Light trucks that meet certain criteria, defined as ``vehicles 
manufactured for operation by persons with disabilities,'' are not 
required to provide automatic protection until September 1, 1997. 
Automatic protection may be either an air bag or an automatic belt. As 
a practical matter, NHTSA believes that light truck manufacturers will 
install air bags as the only type of automatic protection in their 1998 
model year vehicles because of the Federal law that requires air bags 
in all their vehicles as of September 1, 1998 (the 1999 model year). 
NHTSA does not now have sufficient data to allow the agency to decide 
if air bags will pose any unique problems for drivers with disabilities 
because of the interaction with the special adaptive equipment needed 
to allow people with disabilities to drive. However, the agency will 
conduct testing during fiscal year 1996 to examine this subject in 
detail. This testing will allow NHTSA to take any necessary regulatory 
and/or consumer information actions before the current exclusion for 
drivers with disabilities expires in September 1997.

Questions for the Public

    To aid the agency in obtaining useful comments, NHTSA is including 
an appendix to this notice which consists of a number of specific 
questions and requests for data. For easy reference, the questions are 
numbered consecutively. NHTSA encourages commenters to provide specific 
responses for each question for which they may have information or 
views. In addition, in order to facilitate tabulating the comments by 
issue, the agency encourages commenters to respond to the questions in 
sequence, and to identify the number of each question to which they are 
responding.
    NHTSA requests that commenters provide as specific a rationale as 
possible, including an analysis of safety consequences, for any 
positions that are taken. Commenters with a technical background are 
encouraged to provide scientific analysis of these matters. The 
automobile manufacturers and air bag component and system suppliers are 
requested to define major milestones for future plans and give 
estimated completion dates. The agency appreciates that much of this 
information may be confidential business information and will treat it 
in accordance with statutory requirements. 

[[Page 56557]]

    The list of questions does not purport to be an all inclusive list 
of items or information which the public may have available and believe 
is valuable in assessing the issues. Commenters are encouraged to 
provide any other data that they believe are relevant.

Public Meeting

    NHTSA anticipates holding one or more public meetings on this 
subject after the written comments have been received.

Rulemaking Analyses and Notices

Executive Order 12866 and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures

    This document seeks public input on possible regulatory and 
nonregulatory responses to an emerging issue. It does not contain any 
regulatory changes that have so far been identified as sufficiently 
likely to warrant calculation of possible benefits and costs. The task 
of calculating costs is further complicated by the fact that while some 
of the regulatory changes would mandate changes to existing air bag 
designs, those changes would not involve the addition or deletion of 
easily identifiable design elements or features. NHTSA has not analyzed 
the impact of this notice under E.O. 12866 and the Department of 
Transportation's regulatory policies and procedures. If at some time in 
the future the agency proposes some regulatory action, it will make the 
determinations in connection with that future action.

Executive Order 12612 (Federalism)

    NHTSA has analyzed this notice in accordance with the principles 
and criteria contained in E.O. 12612, and has determined that it does 
not have significant federalism implications to warrant the preparation 
of a Federalism Assessment.

Submission of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit comments. It is requested 
but not required that 10 copies be submitted.
    All comments must not exceed 15 pages in length. (49 CAR 553.21). 
Necessary attachments may be appended to these submissions without 
regard to the 15-page limit. This limitation is intended to encourage 
commenters to detail their primary arguments in a concise fashion.
    If a commenter wishes to submit certain information under a claim 
of confidentiality, three copies of the complete submission, including 
purportedly confidential business information, should be submitted to 
the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the street address given above, and seven 
copies from which the purportedly confidential information has been 
deleted should be submitted to the Docket Section. A request for 
confidentiality should be accompanied by a cover letter setting forth 
the information specified in the agency's confidential business 
information regulation. 49 CAR part 512.
    All comments received before the close of business on the comment 
closing date indicated above will be considered, and will be available 
for examination in the docket at the above address both before and 
after that date. To the extent possible, comments filed after the 
closing date will also be considered. Comments will be available for 
inspection in the docket. The NHTSA will continue to file relevant 
information as it becomes available in the docket after the closing 
date, and it is recommended that interested persons continue to examine 
the docket for new material.
    Those persons desiring to be notified upon receipt of their 
comments in the rules docket should enclose a self-addressed, stamped 
postcard in the envelope with their comments. Upon receiving the 
comments, the docket supervisor will return the postcard by mail.

List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 571

    Imports, Motor vehicle safety, Motor vehicles.

(Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117, and 30166; 
delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.50)

    Issued on November 6, 1995.
Barry Felrice,
Associate Administrator for Safety Performance Standards.

Appendix--List of Questions

Field Experience With Air Bags

    As discussed above, NHTSA relies on data from FARS and NASS, 
including the Special Crash Investigation Program, to monitor air 
bag performance in crashes. However, the public, particularly 
insurers, vehicle manufacturers, and the medical community may have 
information that would supplement the NHTSA data regarding air bag 
performance in crashes.
    1. Please provide any available air bag performance information 
in the following areas, separately for each calendar year from 1987 
to the present 2:

     2 September 1, 1986 was the start of the phase-in of 
automatic protection for all new passenger cars. Automatic 
protection means a vehicle must offer either air bags or automatic 
belts. Accordingly, 1987 was the first year for which any 
substantial number of vehicles with air bags were on the road.
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    a. The total number of air bag deployments in crashes during the 
calendar year;
    b. The air bag deployments in crashes for each make/model of 
vehicle;
    c. The total number of air bag deployments in crashes in which 
the crash severity was 15 mph or less or in which little damage 
occurred to the vehicle; and
    d. Any cases of deployment in which the air bag may have 
contributed to serious injuries or fatalities for occupants - if 
such cases are identified, please provide details about the position 
in which the occupant was seated (driver or passenger position), the 
injured person's gender, age, height, and weight, whether the 
occupant was belted, unbelted, or in a child restraint, and the 
source for this information (e.g., police report, insurance claim, 
hospital report, etc.).
    e. Any cases of deployment in which the air bag may have saved 
lives, prevented injuries or reduced injury severity, etc.
    NHTSA requests that when insurance companies provide data about 
field experience, it would be very helpful if they would include the 
number of vehicles they insured in each calendar year (insured 
vehicle years).
    2. What information is available concerning the reduction or 
increase in different types of injuries and injury severities that 
may be associated with the introduction of air bags? The medical 
community is especially requested to respond to this question.

Crash Sensing

    NHTSA's data indicate that situations in which air bags appear 
to have contributed to serious or fatal injuries have occurred at 
crash severities below 15 mph, some even below 10 mph, with minimal 
damage to the vehicle. The agency is asking the public to provide 
information that would help NHTSA assess the range of deployment 
thresholds currently chosen by vehicle manufacturers for their 
different vehicles, why those differences exist, and the 
manufacturers' efforts to adjust and redefine the algorithms used to 
determine whether the air bag should deploy. Specifically, the 
agency would like to learn:
    3. What algorithms and calibrations do manufacturers use to 
determine when the air bag should deploy in each of their vehicles?
    4. What are the reasons why that threshold for air bag 
deployment was chosen (e.g., corresponds to the speed at which an 
unbelted occupant would experience facial fractures from steering 
wheel, speed at which unbelted occupant would be likely to 
experience serious chest injuries, etc.)?
    5. NHTSA believes that manufacturers generally specify different 
deployment thresholds for different vehicles. Is this belief correct 
and, if so, what are the reasons why different deployment thresholds 
are specified (e.g., more interior room in vehicle, different 
intended use of vehicle, different target purchasers, etc.)?
    6. How do the deployment thresholds specified for different 
vehicles correlate to the speed the thresholds represent in a 
frontal crash test into a fixed rigid barrier?

Air Bag Inflators

    Ford indicated in its request to the agency that it could reduce 
the air bag inflator onset 

[[Page 56558]]
rate simply by decreasing the amount of propellant contained in the 
inflator. Ford said that such a change could be made quickly and 
would, in Ford's opinion, reduce the incidence of air bag-induced 
injuries, particularly to upper extremities, and allow more optimal 
tuning of current safety belt systems.
    7. Please provide as detailed information as possible about 
current air bag inflators, including inflator tank pressure curves, 
the effect of reduced propellant on those pressure curves and the 
overall performance of the inflator, and inflators that use dual or 
multiple staged inflation. The agency is particularly interested in 
learning why manufacturers have chosen the particular 
characteristics for the inflators used in their vehicles (e.g., 
cost, simplicity, etc.) and the leadtime that would be needed to 
change inflator characteristics in production vehicles.

Air Bag Design

    NHTSA knows that there are many variables in air bag design that 
may affect the performance of air bag systems in the field. The 
agency would like to learn if there are data that indicate any of 
these variables significantly affect the performance of air bag 
systems. The variables NHTSA has identified thus far include:

--Air Bag Volume
--Air Bag Fold Patterns
--Air Bag Tethering
--Air Bag Venting
--Air Bag Mass/Material
--Shape and Size of Air Bag Module Opening
--Module location and deployment path

    To help answer questions about these variables, NHTSA would like 
to learn:
    8. What are the parameters for each of the above variables on 
the air bags used in current vehicles?
    9. To the extent that a manufacturer uses different parameters 
on different vehicles, what are the reasons for the difference?
    10. What other variables not identified above affect air bag 
performance, and what is the basis for that belief?
    11. What is the estimated leadtime needed to change each of 
these variables in production vehicles, and what are the reasons for 
why such leadtime is needed?

Proximity Considerations

    Most of the fatalities involving air bags have occurred to 
children and small statured adults who were unbelted or otherwise 
improperly restrained, possibly out of position, and very close to 
the air bag at deployment. To assist the agency in identifying 
possible approaches to mitigate the problem in these circumstances, 
the public is asked to provide any data or information that may be 
available on the following subjects:
    12. Is there a quantified minimum safe distance from the 
inflator nozzle/air bag at the time of deployment for air bags 
generally or for any particular air bag designs? If so, please 
provide that information and the data in support of that distance.
    For the following questions, NHTSA is especially interested in 
all the data and information that support the response given. In 
addition, the agency would like the public to identify the trade-
offs that would be involved in taking any of these actions.
    13. Do ``top mounted'' air bags substantially reduce the adverse 
side effects at the passenger position?
    14. Can the adverse side effects be substantially reduced by 
recessing the inflator/air bag either in the steering wheel assembly 
or in the dash?
    15. Would displacement of the inflator away from the occupant at 
deployment substantially reduce the adverse side effects?
    16. Would pedal adjusters (which move the pedals closer to the 
driver and allow the driver's arms instead of leg length to 
determine how close the driver must sit) reduce adverse side effects 
of air bags by allowing drivers to sit further back?
    17. Would telescoping and/or tilt steering wheel assemblies 
substantially reduce the adverse side effects of air bags?
    18. Can advanced sensors, which would either sound a warning or 
not deploy when an occupant was too close to an air bag, 
substantially reduce the adverse side effects of air bags?
    19. Would safety belt pre-tensioners reduce the risk of air bag 
deployment injuries?
    20. What laboratory test procedures and devices do manufacturers 
use and find appropriate to assess inflation hazards to occupants in 
close proximity to the driver or passenger air bag?

Near Term Considerations

    The agency would like to know if there are near term (six months 
to one year) changes which could significantly reduce the 
probabilities of the serious injuries and fatalities attributed to 
air bag deployment. The agency is aware that some possible near term 
changes to air bags could involve safety tradeoffs; i.e., reducing 
certain types of injuries while allowing increases in others, 
offering higher protection at higher speeds at the expense of lower 
speed crashes, or protecting certain types of occupants (e.g., 
belted or those of small stature) at the expense of others (e.g., 
unbelted or large occupants). The agency would like to obtain 
information on possible near term changes and any safety tradeoffs 
associated with such changes. NHTSA is particularly interested in 
the effects of any potential changes on particular groups, such as 
young adults and children, and occupants of the growing light truck 
and van market, where belt use has traditionally been lower.
    21. What would be the safety consequences of permitting manual 
air bag cut-off switches? Are there policy or other considerations 
that warrant treating the driver's and passenger's positions 
differently? How difficult would it be to retrofit such devices for 
vehicles on the road?
    22. It seems that a change in deployment threshold could be made 
relatively quickly simply by modifying the calibration of the 
sensors or the algorithm used for deployment. What is the estimated 
leadtime needed to change the deployment threshold used in current 
air bag designs, and why is that amount of leadtime needed to make 
such a change?
    23. What would be the safety consequences of a reduction or 
modification of the inflation rate?
    24. How quickly can the manufacturers develop module locations 
that are recessed in the steering wheel or the instrument panel?

Future Plans

    The agency is aware that much effort is underway to develop 
various levels of ``smart'' air bag systems. These smart air bag 
systems may range from dual threshold sensors that deploy the bag at 
different crash severities by recognizing whether the occupant is 
restrained or unrestrained (such systems are already in some luxury 
vehicles) to systems that include items such as:

Variable inflation rates
Occupant seat sensors
Proximity detection/sensing
Dual or multi-stage inflators/sensors
Dual or variable venting, etc.

    25. Please provide detailed information concerning the 
technologies and strategies being considered in each of the above 
areas, as well as any other advanced air bag concepts, and the 
potential and expected dates of implementation.

Obstacles to Near and Long Term Plans

    26. The agency requests information and explanations of any 
obstacles that may hinder advancements in reaching near or long term 
solutions to these problems. These could include or require changes 
in present regulations or the development of new regulations. Please 
provide recommendations for any agency actions that could be 
beneficial, the rationale for that action, and its safety 
consequences (quantified, if possible).
    27. As discussed above, Ford has requested that the agency 
reduce FMVSS 208's unbelted test speed from 30 mph to 25 mph. 
According to Ford, this would make it easier for it to reduce the 
air bag inflation speed, thereby reducing low speed air bag 
injuries.
    a. If NHTSA were to make a short-term change in FMVSS 208 to 
facilitate quick reductions in air bag inflation speeds (i.e., a 
change that would apply until manufacturers can implement smart air 
bags or other design changes to address low speed air bag injuries), 
how would manufacturers respond? What would be the specific safety 
consequences of such a change, including possible adverse 
consequences for unbelted occupants and for occupants in much higher 
speed crashes?
    b. A reduction in FMVSS 208's unbelted test speed might not be 
the only way to facilitate quick reductions in air bag inflation 
speeds. For example, NHTSA could possibly retain the 30 mph unbelted 
test but temporarily increase the chest loading maximum of 60 g's 
for that test. FMVSS No. 208 currently specifies the same chest 
loading maximum for both the belted and unbelted tests. The agency 
notes that a preliminary review of recent biomechanical data 
generated for NHTSA suggests that the human tolerance to 
acceleration for serious chest injury may be higher for air bags 
than for belts, because the air bag delivers a more broadly 
distributed, uniform loading to the chest than does a safety belt. 
Would 

[[Page 56559]]
manufacturers respond to this type of change differently than for the 
change suggested by Ford? What would be the specific safety 
consequences of such a change, including possible adverse 
consequences?

Air Bag Issues Related to Persons With Disabilities

    28. What has been the experience in modifying air bag-equipped 
vehicles to be driven by persons with disabilities? What type of 
problems have been encountered? Have the drivers been pleased with 
the results?
    29. Has any person with a disability that you know of been 
involved in a crash in which the air bag deployed at his or her 
seating position?
    30. Were any of these persons apparently saved from serious 
injury by the air bag? If so, please describe the situation.
    31. Has any person with a disability been injured by the 
deployment of an air bag in a vehicle (mpv, car or truck)? If so, 
please provide as much information as possible on the event.
    32. Is it very common that children with disabilities (whether 
small enough to use a child seat or not) must for health reasons sit 
in the front seat to be near the driver, when the driver is the only 
adult in the vehicle. Of these, how many can not use conventional 
seat belts, or child seats, due to their disabilities?
    33. How many persons in the U.S. use steering control devices 
mounted on steering wheels containing air bags? What is your source 
of data, or how would you estimate this number?
    34. What types of conditions in persons with disabilities would 
make them more susceptible to injury from an air bag (driver or 
passenger) than any other person in the same seating position? Would 
these people also be more susceptible to seat belt-induced injury?

[FR Doc. 95-27781 Filed 11-6-95; 11:29 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P