Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Child Restraint Systems; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking

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This document denies a petition for rulemaking from Xportation Safety Concepts, Incorporated, requesting that NHTSA amend an air bag warning label requirement in the Federal motor vehicle safety standard for child restraints. The standard requires that each child restraint that can be used rear-facing bear a label directing caregivers not to place the child restraint on the front seat with an air bag, and provides other related warnings. The petitioner suggests that if a rear-facing child restraint is able to limit forces imposed on a test dummy by a deploying air bag, the child restraint should be excluded from the warning label requirement. The petitioner believes that its rear-facing child restraint is such a restraint. NHTSA is denying the petition because the petitioner's suggested methodology for testing the capability of rear-facing child restraints to protect against air bag forces does not adequately assess the safety risks that air bags pose to children. Further, there is no other available test that assures that a child restraint will perform well with the myriad of air bag systems in current and future vehicles. The agency reaffirms the merits of urging parents to place