Background FMVSS 500 requires low-speed vehicles to have headlamps, stop lamps, turn signal lamps, tail lamps, reflex reflectors, parking brakes, rearview mirror, windshields, safety belts and vehicle identification numbers. "Low-speed vehicles" are small, 4-wheeled motor vehicles with top speeds of 20 to 25 miles per hour. Increasingly, these vehicles are used for personal transportation on roads that also carry other traffic - e.g. for shopping and personal errands within retirement communities or other planned communities. Most conventional golf cars, as originally manufactured, are exempt from FMVSS 500, because they have a top speed of less than 15 miles per hour.

ObjectiveTo determine the effectiveness, cost and use of safety belts in low-speed vehicles.

Proposed Approach Statistical analyses (if possible) of State crash files, where large retirement communities exist, will compare injury and fatality risk of belted and unbelted occupants of low-speed vehicles. (Low-speed vehicles crashes may not be reported in the State crash files because most of these crashes will have minor damage and no injuries if on public roads or will not be on public roads.) A survey of the use of safety belts in low-speed vehicles will be conducted in retirement or other planned communities where these vehicles are prevalent, perhaps as an added task in an ongoing occupant-protection study. The cost of installing safety belts in low-speed vehicles will be estimated from "teardown" analyses or from information provided by manufacturers. The belt-use survey and cost analysis can be completed in 1-2 years; the effectiveness analysis may be postponed unless vehicles of this type become far more common.