Interpretation ID: jensen.drn
P. O. Box 897
Twin Peaks, CA 92391
Dear Mr. Jensen:
This responds to your recent letter requesting NHTSA's assistance to alter your MY 1996 Kia Sportage to accommodate your needs. Your letter informed us that you need to install a hand brake in your car in order to assist your driving, and to do this, you must remove a "knee airbag," installed at knee level at the driver's seating position. You ask us for written permission that would permit you to go to a dealership to disconnect the driver's side knee air bag. This letter grants the permission you request.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, Occupant crash protection, requires that certain new vehicles be equipped with automatic crash protection at the front outboard seating positions. The air bag in your car was installed as one means of complying with that requirement.
Removing or deactivating an air bag by a vehicle dealer is prohibited by Section 30122(b) of Title 49 of the United States Code, the title under which Standard No. 208 was issued. That section provides in part that--
A manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or motor vehicle repair business may not knowingly make inoperative any part of a device or element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle ... in compliance with an applicable motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter ...
However, in limited situations in which a vehicle must be modified to accommodate the needs of a person with a particular disability or a person's special medical needs, NHTSA has in the past stated that it would consider violations of the "make inoperative" prohibition as purely technical ones justified by public need, and that it would not institute enforcement proceedings. This is to advise you that we would regard a deactivation of the driver's side knee air bag in your Sportage in the same way. NHTSA considers your special medical needs as sufficient justification for not taking enforcement action against a dealer that deactivates the knee air bag in your car in order to install the hand brake.
Please show this letter to your dealer or repair business when you take your car to have the driver's side knee air bag deactivated. If the dealer or repair business wishes to verify the authenticity of this letter, they may call the telephone number below.
I hope this letter resolves your problem. If you have any other questions, please contact Dorothy Nakama of my staff at this address or by phone at (202) 366-2992.
Sincerely,
John Womack
Acting Chief Counsel
ref:VSA#208
d:6/11/97