Interpretation ID: nht75-6.38

DATE: 10/10/75

FROM: WILLIAM T. COLEMAN -- SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

TO: HONORABLE BARBER B. CONABLE -- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

TITLE: NONE

ATTACHMT: LETTER DATED SEPTEMBER 5, 1975 FROM BARBER CONABLE TO HON. WILLIAM T. COLEMAN; LETTER DATED AUGUST 7, 1975 FROM F. J. GUPPENBERGER TO REP. BARBER CONABLE

TEXT: This is in response to your letter of September 5, 1975, requesting information concerning an inquiry from one of your constituents, Mr. F. J. Guppenberger, relating to the permissibility of raising cars' rear bumpers.

Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 215, Exterior Protection, imposes performance requirements on automobile bumper systems. One of these requirements specifies impacts at certain heights, and has the effect of requiring bumpers to be manufactured at fairly uniform heights.

The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Pub. L. 89-563), as recently amended (Pub. L. 93-492), prohibits any manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or motor vehicle repair business from knowingly rendering inoperative, in whole or in part, any device or element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment in compliance with an applicable motor vehicle safety standard (@ 108(a) (2) (A)). Therefore, if the bumper were raised by one of the above classes of persons causing it no longer to comply with the Standard No. 215 requirements, a violation of the Act would have occurred. That law does not, however, prohibit an individual from altering the bumper on his own car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agency that administers the Traffic Safety Act, is not authorized by that Act to prohibit vehicles with raised bumpers from operating on the highways. Except for certain limited areas such as motor carriers in interstate commerce, the regulation of vehicles operating on the highways is within the authority of the States.