Interpretation ID: aiam2001
Development Project Director
Product Development Division
Reynolds Metals Company
5th and Cary Streets
Richmond
VA 23261;
Dear Mr. Hatch: This is in response to your letter of July 14, 1975, asking whethe recycled replacement bumpers must comply with the requirements of Standard No. 215, *Exterior Protection*, and which States have bumper requirements that exceed the level of performance mandated by the Federal standard.; Standard No. 215 is a motor vehicle safety standard that applies to th performance of bumper systems on cars manufactured after certain dates. The requirements of the standard are not imposed on the manufacturers of the bumper as an item of motor vehicle equipment. It is the manufacturer of the car who must certify the compliance of the bumper system with the provisions of Standard 215. Therefore, the sale of a bumper, as an item of replacement equipment, does not fall within the application of the standard.; Section 108 of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Pub L. 89-563), as amended (Pub. L. 93-492), prohibits any manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or motor vehicle repair business from knowingly rendering inoperative any device or element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment in compliance with a safety standard. Thus, even though a recycled bumper is not required to meet the requirements of Standard 215 when it is produced or sold, its installation on a car by one of the above-named persons would invoke the application of section 108 of the Act. As long as a vehicle complies either with the particular safety standard in effect at the time of its manufacture or with the standard in effect at the time the system in question is replaced or altered, no violation of section 108 would have occurred.; The Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act of 1972 (Pub. L 92-513) directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to promulgate a Federal bumper standard that will achieve the maximum feasible reduction in costs to consumers who are involved in low speed collisions. Currently, several States have bumper standards that are geared toward the same type of cost reduction. According to section 110 of the Cost Savings Act, States with cost-reduction standards (applying to non-safety-related damage) that were in effect or promulgated by the date of the Act's issuance (October 20, 1972) can retain those standards, to the extent they do not conflict with Standard No. 215, until a Federal cost-reduction bumper standard takes effect. Once the NHTSA enacts such a Federal bumper standard, those bumper standards which are not identical will be preempted.; As far as we know, the only States which currently have bumpe standards imposing requirements different from those contained in Standard 215 are California, Florida, and Georgia.; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Acting Chief Counsel