[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 121 (Wednesday, June 24, 1998)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 34330-34332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-16824]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. NHTSA-98-3968, Notice 1]
RIN 2127-AG14


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Response to petitions for reconsideration.

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SUMMARY: This action denies four petitions for reconsideration of 
NHTSA's final rule and correcting amendments concerning air bag warning 
labels. The rule requires vehicles with air bags to bear three new, 
attention-getting warning labels. Two of the labels replace previous 
labels on the sun visor and the third is a new temporary (i.e., 
removable) label located on the vehicle dash.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    NHTSA published a final rule amending Federal Motor Vehicle Safety 
Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection'', on November 27, 
1996 (61 FR 60206). The rule requires vehicles with air bags to bear 
three new, attention-getting warning labels. Two of the labels replace 
previous labels on the sun visor and the third is a new removable label 
located on the vehicle dash. Under the final rule, the labels on the 
sun visors in vehicles produced after February 25, 1997, are required 
to state:

    WARNING: DEATH or SERIOUS INJURY can occur. Children 12 and 
under can be killed by the air bag. The BACK SEAT is the SAFEST 
place for children. NEVER put a rear-facing child seat in the front 
(unless air bag is off) 1. Sit back as far as possible 
from the air bag. ALWAYS use SEAT BELTS and CHILD RESTRAINTS.

    \1\ Parenthetical text is only appropriate for vehicles with a 
factory-installed on-off switch.
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The removable label on the dash must state:

    WARNING: Children May Be KILLED or INJURED by Passenger Air Bag. 
The back seat is the safest place for children 12 and under. Make 
sure all children use seat belts or child seats.

The rule excludes vehicles with smart passenger air bags, as those 
devices are defined in the regulatory text made part of the final 
rule.2
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    \2\ While the final rule includes a definition of ``smart 
passenger air bags'', the agency is currently working on a 
rulemaking which will replace this definition with a definition of 
``advanced air bags''.
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    Subsequent to the final rule, NHTSA published three correcting or 
technical amendments. On December 4, 1996, the agency published a 
correcting amendment allowing manufacturers of vehicles without 
passenger-side air bags to omit the required warning language 
concerning hazards to children from air bags (61 FR 64297). A second 
correcting amendment was issued on December 11, 1996 that allowed 
manufacturers of vehicles with no back seat to omit the required 
warning language stating that children are safest in the back seat (61 
FR 57187). On January 2, 1997, NHTSA published a technical amendment 
correcting a typographical error by changing the word ``may'' to 
``can'' in the temporary warning label (62 FR 31).

II. Summary of Petitions

    NHTSA received three petitions for reconsideration of the November 
27, 1996 final rule. Meyercord, a label manufacturer, petitioned for a 
definition of the term ``permanently affixed'' as used in the standard. 
The Parent's Coalition for Air Bag Warnings asked for the definition of 
``smart passenger air bag'' to be refined to include air bags that do 
not deploy if the passenger seat is occupied by an individual weighing 
130 pounds or less rather than 66 pounds or less. AAMA requested an 
amendment allowing the new air bag warning label and the utility 
vehicle rollover warning label required under 49 CFR section 575.105 to 
be on the same side of the sun visor.
    The agency received one petition for reconsideration of the 
December 11, 1996 correcting amendment. AAMA asked that the required 
warning language regarding children and the back seat be changed from 
``The BACK SEAT is the SAFEST place for children'' to ``If the vehicle 
has a BACK SEAT, that seat is the SAFEST place for children''. Under 
AAMA's petition, all vehicles, including those without a back seat, 
would be required to use its proposed language in the warning labels.

III. Discussion of Issues

A. Petitions for Reconsideration of the November 27, 1996 Final Rule

1. Meyercord
    Meyercord petitioned the agency to ``require that the air bag 
warning graphics pass specifications to ensure that the important 
message does in fact remain ``permanently affixed.'' Meyercord 
maintains that there is consensus in the automotive industry that 
labels which are ``permanently affixed'' ``should last the life of the 
vehicle and that any attempt to remove it would result in the base 
material being cut or gouged in some way.'' According to Meyercord, 
only heat transfer graphics can meet this definition of ``permanently 
affixed''. Sticker graphics, Meyercord avers, can be peeled away. The 
company included in its petition a photograph of a sun visor with a 
peeling sticker graphic and Ford's 15-page Engineering Material 
Specification No. WSS-M7G7-B1, which it believes will assist the agency 
in defining a level of adhesiveness.
    Meyercord's petition is denied. Following its practice in other 
NHTSA regulations where the term ``permanently affixed'' is also used, 
NHTSA did not define ``permanently affixed'' when it added the term to 
Standard No. 208. NHTSA has not found a definition necessary in those 
other regulations. When asked, NHTSA has issued an interpretation of 
the term.3 Specifically, NHTSA has said that a label is 
permanent if it cannot be removed without destroying or defacing it and 
that the label should remain legible for the expected life of the 
product under normal conditions.
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    \3\ Cf., letter to Hank Thorp, Inc., August 7, 1973 (FMVSS No. 
211); letter to Joseph Lucas North America, Inc., October 6, 1975 
(FMVSS No. 106).
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    NHTSA does not know the context under which the label depicted in 
the photograph submitted by Meyercord began to peel away from the sun 
visor. NHTSA surmises that the vehicle was probably within its expected 
lifespan, given the time when such labels were first required on motor 
vehicles. Absent the existence of abnormal conditions in the history of 
the vehicle, the photograph might be an indication of a noncompliance 
with Standard No. 208. In such an instance, the existence of a 
performance test is not necessary to enforce the requirement for 
permanently affixing a label.

[[Page 34331]]

2. Parents' Coalition for Air Bag Warnings
    The Parents' Coalition for Air Bag Warnings (Coalition) requested 
that NHTSA amend the provision which excludes a ``smart passenger air 
bag'' from the requirement for a warning label on the above sun visor. 
Currently, in order to qualify as a smart air bag, a passenger air bag 
must not deploy if the passenger seat is occupied by a child or child 
and car seat (if applicable) having a total mass of 30 kg 
(approximately 66 lbs) or less. The Coalition would like to revise the 
exclusion so that in order to qualify as a smart passenger air bag, an 
air bag must not deploy if the passenger seat is occupied by a child 
weighing 130 pounds or less. The Coalition notes that the average 12 
year old boy weighs 99 pounds and the average 12 year old girl weighs 
102 pounds. The Coalition also notes that 90th percentile male and 
female 12 year old children weigh 130 pounds and 133 pounds, 
respectively. The Coalition believes that amending the criteria for a 
smart passenger air bag is necessary to make them consistent with the 
warning label requirement that states all children 12 years and under 
should ride in the back seat.
    The petition is denied. The warning label requirement and the smart 
passenger air bag exclusion serve two separate functions. The warning 
label advises parents and other adult drivers of the risks involved in 
allowing a child to ride in the front seat. The smart passenger air bag 
exclusion is intended to encourage the installation of smart passenger 
air bags by relieving a vehicle manufacturer from complying with some 
of the labeling requirements if the manufacturer installs such a 
passenger air bag. The criteria for a smart passenger air bag were 
selected to ensure that a qualifying air bag would not injure two 
specially at-risk groups of children (i.e., infants in rear facing 
child restraints or children weighing less that 30 kg). Most of the 
child deaths have involved children weighing less than 60 pounds and 
significantly younger than twelve. Smart air bag technology based on 
weight classifications is an absolute measure which would deactivate 
the air bag regardless of who is sitting in the front seat. The agency 
believes that the air bag should remain operable for occupants who do 
not fall within the narrowly prescribed risk group. An upper weight 
limit of 130 pounds would be overly broad since it would deactivate the 
air bag for a large portion of the adult population as well as most 
children.
    Additionally, NHTSA noted in the preamble to the notice of proposed 
rulemaking issued in August 1996 that the definition of a smart 
passenger air bag was very general and would be refined in future 
rulemaking. In the more recent (November 1997) final rule permitting 
retrofit on-off switches for air bags, the agency stated that the 
definition would be addressed in the forthcoming proposal on advanced 
air bags (the current name of smart air bags).
3. AAMA
    AAMA petitioned the agency to permit the new air bag warning labels 
and the utility vehicle rollover warning label required by 49 CFR 
section 595.105 to be on the same side of a utility vehicle's sun 
visor. As was the case prior to the publication of the final rule, the 
utility vehicle label is prohibited from being placed on the same side 
of the sun visor as the air bag warning label. The vehicle rollover 
warning label can be placed on the front of sun visors that have an air 
bag alert label with the actual air bag warning label on the back of 
the visor.
    AAMA stated that the language proposed in the August 1996 NPRM did 
not include the prohibition against having the vehicle rollover warning 
label and the air bag warning label on the front side of the visor. 
This omission was corrected in the final rule. Additionally, AAMA noted 
that the size and number of the required air bag alert labels will lead 
many manufacturers to place an air bag warning label on the front of 
the visor only. AAMA contended that there is no good location for the 
utility vehicle label other than the front of the sun visor. It also 
maintained that the two labels, coexisting on the same side of the sun 
visor, will not distract people's attention from the air bag warning 
given ``the number and prominence of those labels''.
    The petition is denied. NHTSA believes that AAMA may be correct 
that manufacturers will place a single warning label on the front of 
the visor and will discard the air bag alert label. The agency also 
acknowledges that the new air bag warning labels are more eye-catching 
than existing utility vehicle labels which only have a required text 
and not required size, color, or layout. However, on April 13, 1998, 
NHTSA proposed changes to the utility vehicle label that would make it 
nearly as eye catching as the air bag warning labels (63 FR 17974). 
That rulemaking specifically asks for comments on the location of the 
proposed label, including whether it should be allowed on the same side 
of the sun visor as the air bag label. Accordingly, NHTSA intends to 
address AAMA's concerns in that rulemaking.

B. Petition for Reconsideration of the December 11, 1996 Correcting 
Amendment

    AAMA petitioned NHTSA to amend the warning label language 
applicable to children and a vehicle's rear seat. The current language 
states that ``The BACK SEAT is the SAFEST place for children.'' AAMA 
suggested changing the language to read: ``If the vehicle has a BACK 
SEAT, that seat is the SAFEST place for children.'' A corresponding 
change was suggested for the temporary dashboard label. AAMA also 
suggested that the current exclusion from the required language for 
vehicles with no back seat be eliminated.
    AAMA maintained that the post-final rule amendments allow up to 
eight possible labels, a situation which it regards as confusing and 
expensive for manufacturers. It contended that its suggestion would 
eliminate the need for two separate labels (one for vehicles with a 
back seat and a different one for vehicles without a back seat). It 
also argued that absence of a labeling requirement for vehicles without 
a back seat may encourage adults to place children in those vehicles 
instead of in vehicles in which the children can be placed in the back 
seat, away from the passenger air bag.
    The petition is denied. NHTSA finds no support for AAMA's 
contention that people would be more likely to transport their children 
in a vehicle without a back seat than in a vehicle with a back seat 
under the current labeling requirements. Accordingly, the agency 
believes that this contention is incorrect.
    NHTSA notes that AAMA member companies were among the manufacturers 
recommending the amendments which allow for multiple labeling options, 
depending on vehicle type. The original warning label, without any 
exclusions based on vehicle type, is appropriate for any vehicle 
regardless of the existence of a back seat. Indeed, NHTSA is concerned 
that AAMA's suggested language could lead a consumer to believe that 
the front seat of vehicles without a back seat are somehow safer than 
the front seat of vehicles with a back seat. The original label clearly 
states that back seats are safest. Additionally, NHTSA notes that the 
AAMA's recommended language increases the length and wordiness of the 
warning label. Focus groups indicated that the messages on the label 
should be concise.


[[Page 34332]]


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

    Issued on: June 18, 1998.
L. Robert Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Performance Standards.
[FR Doc. 98-16824 Filed 6-23-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P