Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Designated Seating Positions and Seat Belt Assembly Anchorages

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Today's final rule amends the definition of the term, "designated seating position," as used in the Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS), to indicate more clearly which areas within the interior of a vehicle meet that definition. Today's final rule also establishes a calculation procedure for determining the number of designated seating positions at a seat location for trucks and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating less than 10,000 lbs, passenger cars, and buses. Further, this document eliminates the existing exclusion of auxiliary seats (i.e., temporary or folding jump seats) from the definition of "designated seating position." Today's final rule encourages manufacturers to use a variety of visual cues in the design of the vehicle interior to help improve occupant awareness as to which areas of a vehicle are not intended to be used as seating positions. This will help to ensure that occupants sit in locations where they are afforded the crash protection required by the FMVSSs.