[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 219 (Tuesday, November 12, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58095-58096]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-28901]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration


Denial of Petition for a Defect Investigation

    This notice sets forth the reason for the denial of a petition 
submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 
under 49 U.S.C. 30162(a)(2) (formerly section 124 of the National 
Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, as amended).
    By letter dated June 26, 1996, Randall H. Mierzejewski of 
Manchester, New Hampshire, petitioned the Administrator of NHTSA for an 
investigation of seat belts in 1988 Subaru 4x4 DL Station Wagons.
    NHTSA is the government agency authorized, under Chapter 301 of 
Title 49 of the United States Code, to order manufacturers to recall 
and repair vehicles or items of motor vehicle equipment when 
investigations indicate that they contain serious safety-related 
defects in design, construction or performance. Based upon the results 
of an investigation, the agency may seek a recall when such defects 
appear in a group of vehicles and are related to motor vehicle safety. 
The agency cannot act on isolated problems or disputes between 
individual owners and manufacturers.
    NHTSA is also authorized under Chapter 301 to order manufacturers 
to recall and repair vehicles or items of motor vehicle equipment that 
do not comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety 
standards at the time of their manufacture. However, inasmuch as the 
petitioner is alleging a problem relating to a rollover accident that 
occurred in November 1995 on a 1988 model year vehicle, i.e., several 
years after the vehicle's manufacture and first purchase, NHTSA did not 
treat the petitioner's request as a petition for an investigation of a 
possible noncompliance with a Federal motor vehicle safety standard.
    Rather, the agency treated the request as a petition to commence an 
investigation that could result in an order to recall 1988 Subaru DL 
Station Wagons to remedy an alleged safety-related defect. While the 
petitioner lists

[[Page 58096]]

several alleged causes of the rollover, the only specific defect the 
petitioner alleges is the failure of the safety belt system to hold the 
occupant in a rollover. Consequently, the agency focused on that 
alleged defect in processing the petition.
    NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation searched its computerized 
database for all complaints relating to the safety belt system on model 
year 1987 through 1989 Subaru vehicles. The complaint descriptions were 
examined for any problem relating to failure of the safety belt system 
to restrain the occupant in a vehicle accident. The search yielded only 
six complaints, four of which were on 1988 Subaru GL models (sedan and 
wagon styles) and the other two of which were on DL model wagons, one 
for model year 1987 and another for model year 1989.
    Of these six complaints, four had incident dates prior to the end 
of calendar year 1991. The remaining two were dated June and December 
1995. The DL model complaints had incident dates of June 1990 and 
November 1991. Three out of the six complaints were allegedly accident 
related and four injuries resulted. The injuries have not been 
confirmed to be the result of a safety belt malfunction.
    In order to gauge the severity of the issue, the six Subaru 
complaints were compared with those on 14 other similar models for the 
model years 1987 through 1989. All complaint rates are based on number 
of complaints versus the vehicle population. The database showed that 
the Subaru GL/DL models had lower ``failure to restrain'' complaint 
rates than did many other models. The rates varied from 5.39 to 0.64, 
with an average rate of 2.47 complaints per 100,000 vehicles. The 
Subaru GL/DL complaint rate for model years 1987 through 1989 was 1.71.
    The Office of Defects Investigation also searched its databases for 
any recalls, past or present investigations, and any service bulletins 
relating to the alleged defect on 1988 Subaru vehicles and found none.
    Based on the information available at this time, the fact that the 
Subaru ``failure to restrain'' complaint rate is lower than that of 
other similar models (i.e., Toyota Tercel, Honda Civic, Ford Escort and 
Toyota Camry), and the petitioner's failure to specify any particular 
problem with respect to the design or construction of the subject 
safety belt system, the agency has determined that it would not be 
appropriate to devote agency resources to an investigation. For the 
above reasons, the petition is hereby denied.

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30162(a); delegations of authority at 49 
CFR 1.50 and 501.8.

    Issued on: November 1, 1996.
Michael B. Brownlee,
Associate Administrator for Safety Assurance.
[FR Doc. 96-28901 Filed 11-8-96; 8:45 am]
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