Summary Descriptions of The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

Title 49, Codes of Federal Regulations, Part 571

Standard No. 201: Occupant Protection In Interior Impact
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies performance requirements to provide head impact protection for occupants.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less

Standard No. 202: Head Restraints
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for head restraints to reduce the frequency and severity of neck injury in rear-end and other collisions.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less

Standard No. 203: Impact Protection for the Driver from
the Steering Control System
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for steering control systems that will minimize chest, neck, and facial injuries to the driver as a result of impact.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less; walk-in-vans are excluded

Standard No. 204: Steering Control Rearward Displacement
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements limiting the rearward displacement of the steering column into the passenger compartment to reduce the likelihood of chest, neck, or head injuries.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with unloaded vehicle weight (UVW) of 1,814 kg (4,000 lb) or less; vehicles with UVW of 2,495 kg (5,500 lb) or less; walk-in vans are excluded

Standard No. 205: Glazing Materials
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for glazing materials for use in motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment. The purpose of this standard is to reduce injuries resulting from impact to glazing surfaces, to ensure a necessary degree of transparency in motor vehicle windows for driver visibility and to minimize the possibility of occupants being thrown through the vehicle windows in collisions.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, slide-in campers, and pickup covers [designed to carry persons while in motion]

Standard No. 206: Door Locks and Door Retention Components
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for side and back door locks and door retention components including latches, hinges, and other supporting means, to minimize the likelihood of occupants being thrown from the vehicle as a result of impact.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks

Standard No. 207: Seating Systems
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for seats, their attachment assemblies, and their installation to minimize the possibility of their failure by forces acting on them as a result of vehicle impact.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses

Standard No. 208: Occupant Crash Protection
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies performance requirements for the protection of vehicle occupants in crashes. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths of vehicle occupants, and the severity of injuries, by specifying vehicle crashworthiness requirements in terms of forces and accelerations measured on a variety of anthropomorphic dummies in test crashes, and static airbag deployment tests. This standard also specifies equipment requirements for active and passive restraint systems.

Application:
Passenger cars, trucks, buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 lb) or less and an UVW of 2,495 kg (5,500 lb) or less, except for walk-in van-type trucks or vehicles designed to be sold exclusively to the U. S. Postal Service

Standard No. 209: Seat Belt Assemblies
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for seat belt assemblies. Seat belt assemblies are devices such as straps, webbing, or similar material, as well as to all necessary buckles and other fasteners and all hardware designed for installing the assembly in a motor vehicle, and to the installation, usage, and maintenance instructions for the assembly. The purpose of this standard is to ensure that the hardware of seat belt assemblies shall be designed to prevent attachment bolts and other parts from becoming disengaged from the vehicle while in service.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses

Standard No. 210: Seat Belt Assembly Anchorages
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for seat belt assembly anchorages to ensure their proper location for effective occupant restraint and to reduce the likelihood of their failure during a vehicle impact.

Application:
Any component, other than the webbing or straps, involved in transferring seat belt loads to the vehicle structure in passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses

Standard No. 211: Reserved

Standard No. 212: Windshield Mounting
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes windshield retention requirements for motor vehicles during crashes. The purpose of this standard is to reduce crash injuries and fatalities by providing for retention of the vehicle windshield during a crash, to keep vehicle occupants within the confines of the passenger compartment.

Application:
Passenger cars; multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less; exempted from this standard are: forward control vehicles, walk-in van-type vehicles, or open body type vehicles with fold-down or removable windshields

Standard No. 213: Child Restraint Systems
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for child restraint systems used in motor vehicles and aircraft for the purpose of reducing the number of children killed or injured in motor vehicle crashes and in aircraft.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks and buses, and child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles and aircraft

Standard No. 214: Side Impact Protection
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies dynamic and static performance requirements to assure the crashworthiness of vehicle side structures. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the risk of serious and fatal injury to occupants of vehicles involved in side impact cashes.

Application:
Dynamic requirements—all passenger cars and multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less and static requirements—all passenger cars and multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks and buses with a GVWR of 2,722 kg (6,000 lb) or less

Standard No. 215: Reserved

Standard No. 216: Roof Crush Resistance
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes strength requirements for the passenger compartment roof to reduce deaths and injuries due to the crushing of the roof into the occupant compartment in rollover crashes.

Application:
Passenger cars (except convertibles) and multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks and buses (except school buses) with a GVWR of 2,722 kg (6,000 lb) or less

Standard No. 217: Bus Emergency Exits and
Window Retention and Release
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for the retention of windows other than windshields in buses, and establishes operating forces, opening dimensions, and markings for bus emergency exits. The purpose o f this standard is to minimize the likelihood of occupants being thrown from the bus and to provide a means of readily accessible emergency egress.

Application:
Buses, including school buses

Standard No. 218: Motorcycle Helmets
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes performance requirements for helmets designed for use by motorcyclists and other motor vehicle users. The purpose of this standard is to reduce deaths and injuries to motorcyclists and other motor vehicle users resulting from head impacts.

Application:
All helmets designed for use by motorcyclists and other motor vehicle users

Standard No. 219: Windshield Zone Intrusion
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies limits for the displacement into the windshield area of motor vehicle components during a crash. The purpose of this standard is to reduce crash injuries and fatalities that result from occupants contacting vehicle components displaced near or through the windshield.

Application:
Passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trailers, buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less

Standard No. 220: School Bus Rollover Protection
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes performance requirements for school bus rollover protection. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths and the severity of injuries that result from failure of the school bus body structure to withstand forces encountered in rollover crashes.

Application:
School buses

Standard No. 221: School Bus Body Joint Strength
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for the strength of the body panel joints in school bus bodies. The purpose of this standard is to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from the structural collapse of school bus bodies during crashes.

Application:
School buses with GVWR of more than 4,536 kg (10,000 lb)

Standard No. 222: School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes occupant protection requirements for school bus passenger seating, restraining barriers, and wheelchair anchorages. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths and the severity of injuries that result from the impact of school bus occupants against structures within the vehicle during crashes and sudden driving maneuvers.

Application:
School buses

Standard No. 223: Rear Impact Guards
Scope and Purpose:
This standard specifies requirements for rear impact guards for trailers and semitrailers. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries that occur when light duty vehicles collide with the rear end of trailers and semitrailers.

Application:
Rear impact guards for trailers and semitrailers subject to FMVSS No. 224, Rear Impact Protection

Standard No. 224: Rear Impact Protection
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for the installation of rear impact guards on trailers and semitrailers with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or more. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries occurring when light duty vehicles impact the rear of trailers and semitrailers with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or more.

Application:
Trailers and semitrailers with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or more Pole trailers, pulpwood trailers, low chassis vehicles, special purpose vehicles, wheels back vehicles, or temporary living quarters as defined in 49 CFR 529.2 are exempt

Standard No. 225: Child Restraint Anchorage Systems
Scope and Purpose:
This standard establishes requirements for child restraint anchorage systems to ensure their proper location and strength for the effective securing of child restraints. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the likelihood of the anchorage systems’ failure, and to increase the likelihood that child restraints are properly secured and thus more fully achieve their potential effectiveness in motor vehicles.

Application:
Except for shuttle buses, this standard applies to passenger cars, trucks and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 lb) or less, except walk-in van-type vehicles and vehicles manufactured to be sold exclusively to the U.S. Postal Service; and to buses (including school buses) with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less