Interpretation ID: 77-2.4

TYPE: INTERPRETATION-NHTSA

DATE: 03/29/77

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; F. Berndt; NHTSA

TO: Townsend & Townsend Attorneys at Law

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This responds to your February 9, 1977, letter in which you ask how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determines whether a school bus must comply with the new school bus safety standards.

On April 1, 1977, several new standards will become effective relating to the construction of school buses: Standard No. 220, School Bus Rollover Protection; Standard No. 221, School Bus Body Joint Strength; and Standard No. 222, School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection. Further, several old standards have been amended to provide special requirements for school buses. These amendments also become effective on April 1.

Section 108(a)(1)(A) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Pub. L. 89-563), as amended (Pub. L. 93-492), prohibits the manufacture for sale, sale, offer for sale, or introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of any motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment manufactured on or after the date any applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standard takes effect that does not conform to the standard. This means that any school bus manufactured on or after April 1, 1977, must comply with the school bus safety standards, regardless of the date on which the bus is actually sold or introduced into interstate commerce.

For vehicles that you complete by mounting a body on a new chassis, you are permitted to choose as the date of manufacture either the date of manufacture of the incomplete vehicle (as defined in Part 568, Vehicles Manufactured in Two or More Stages), the date of final completion of the vehicle, or a date between those two dates. Only those standards in effect on the date chosen to represent the date of manufacture would be applicable to the vehicle, irrespective of the date upon which the vehicle is sold to the ultimate consumer.

I am enclosing copies of the new school bus safety standards and Part 568 for your information.

SINCERELY,

February 9, 1977

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Department of Transportation

Re: School Bus Safety Standards

We represent an automobile dealership which has heretofore entered into a contract for the purchase of several school buses.

Essentially, the chassis portion of the school bus is manufactured by General Motors and the bodies are then placed upon the chassis by a third party.

Our client recently received information from General Motors regarding new school bus safety regulations which will become effective on April 1, 1977 under the Motor Vehicle and School Bus Safety Amendments of 1974. Our dealer understands that there will be several modifications necessary to future school buses including locking devices for brake systems and such things as guards for gas tanks. Of course, the cost of these modifications may be great (Illegible Word) circumstances.

With this in mind, our client is particularly interested in your interpretation of when a school bus is sold or introduced into interstate commerce pursuant to Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations Section 571.3. Specifically, if the school bus was ordered and the chassis manufactured prior to the effective date of these changes, would this constitute a sale or do you contemplate sale to mean the date that the final bus is sold to the ultimate consumer? Secondly, if the school bus was completed pursuant to prior specifications before the effective date of the new standards, but is sold to the ultimate consumer after the date of the effective standards, must the modifications be incorporated in the final unit?

We would also appreciate your advise as to the effective date of these new standards for school buses.

We are located some distance from a library containing the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register and thus solicit your help in attempting to answer these questions we have posed.

Your assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

TOWNSEND AND TOWNSEND, ATTORNEYS

Robert N. Townsend