Interpretation ID: aiam2200
Director--Outreach Program
615 Texas Street
Ft. Worth
TX 76102;
Dear Ms. Harding: The Fort Worth Regional Office of the National Highway Traffic Safet Administration (NHTSA) has forwarded to us your February 2, 1976, letter asking whether 16- passenger van-type school buses that presently serve to transport children to and from a day care center fall within the new definition of 'School bus' recently issued by the NHTSA (40 FR 60033, December 31, 1975).; The answer to your question is no. The definition is based on th regulatory authority found in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (the Act) (15 U.S.C. S 1381 *et seq*.). This Act authorizes the regulation of motor vehicle construction in accordance with standards in effect on the date of the vehicle's manufacture.; In the case of this amendment of the definition, the NHTSA chose t make the new definition effective on October 27, 1976, to correspond with the effective date of the new school bus standards. This means that the existing definition of 'School bus' applied at the time of the construction of the vehicles operated by your library. The existing definition applies only to vehicles designed primarily to carry children to and from school, and would not include van- type vehicles.; Yours truly, Richard B. Dyson, Assistant Chief Counsel