Transport i bezpieczeństwo · 24.02.1999

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

The agency denies a petition for rulemaking from Mr. Les Boyd requesting that NHTSA initiate rulemaking to consider requiring motor vehicle manufacturers to equip new vehicles with instrumentation sufficient to alert nearby police whenever the vehicles are being operated with an unbelted occupant. Mr. Boyd suggested that implementation of the requested amendment would lead to increases in the rate of safety belt use. The agency is denying the petition for the following reasons. First, implementation of the requested amendment would be costly since it would necessitate the installation of seat belt use sensors and a transmitter in each vehicle. Second, the requested amendment would have limited effect on safety belt use rates in the majority of states that have mandatory safety belt use laws. These states permit officers to stop a vehicle or issue a citation for an occupant's failure to use a safety belt only if the officers also observe a separate concurrent violation. Third, even in those states whose mandatory safety belt use laws permit officers to enforce those laws without the necessity of observing a separate concurrent violation, the requested amendment might not lead to inc