WASHINGTON — The nation’s high auto security company proposed a rule Monday that might require automakers to equip autos with seat belt warning programs for entrance and rear passenger seats in an effort to determine consistency and enhance seat belt use.
NHTSA’s proposed rule would amend a federal regulation for occupant crash safety generally known as Federal Motor Car Security Normal 208, which mandates visible and audible alerts to encourage seat belt use for the motive force’s seat however doesn’t require a warning for different seating positions.
For rear seats, the proposal would require automakers so as to add a visible warning as soon as a car is began that lasts at the least 60 seconds and an audiovisual “change of standing” warning that lasts at the least 30 seconds if a rear seat belt is unbuckled whereas the car is in operation.
For entrance seats, the proposal would require an audiovisual seat belt use warning for each the motive force and entrance passenger seats that continues to be energetic till the seat belts are secured. It additionally would require an audiovisual “change of standing” warning for each the motive force and entrance passenger seats that continues to be energetic till an unbuckled seat belt is refastened.
The necessities would apply to vehicles, gentle vans and most buses in addition to multiuse passenger autos with a gross car weight score of as much as 10,000 kilos.
Producers would be capable to regulate warning sign traits, resembling frequency and quantity, NHTSA mentioned.
The entrance passenger seat belt warning necessities would take impact on Sept. 1, one 12 months after a last rule is revealed. Necessities for rear seats would take impact on Sept. 1, two years after a last rule is revealed.
“Carrying a seat belt is among the only methods to forestall damage and loss of life in a crash,” Ann Carlson, NHTSA’s appearing administrator, mentioned in a press release. “In 2021, virtually 43,000 individuals misplaced their lives on America’s roads, and half of these in autos have been unbelted. This proposed rule may also help scale back that quantity by getting extra to buckle up.”
The company estimates its proposed necessities would forestall about 300 nonfatal accidents and greater than 100 deaths yearly.
Michael Brooks, govt director of the Middle for Auto Security, mentioned the proposal “has been an extremely very long time coming.”
“In a nutshell, this rule has taken far, far too lengthy,” Brooks informed Automotive Information. “It ought to have been defending rear occupants in 2017. Whereas we’re definitely glad to see motion out of NHTSA, the timeline concerned solely raises extra questions on whether or not the company is supplied to answer rising issues of safety in a well timed method.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most main automakers within the U.S., didn’t instantly have touch upon the proposal.
Advocates for Freeway and Auto Security — a consortium of shopper, public well being and security teams in addition to insurance coverage corporations — mentioned extending seat belt warnings to all seating positions is “urgently wanted,” including that the rule-making was required by Congress greater than a decade in the past.
In a press release Monday, Advocates’ basic counsel Peter Kurdock recommended NHTSA for shifting ahead with the rule-making and urged the company to finish it “with out additional delay.”
Kurdock’s group was nonetheless within the strategy of reviewing NHTSA’s proposal and mentioned it would submit additional suggestions through the 60-day public remark interval.