The Safety Act defines a motor vehicle safety standard as a “minimum” standard for motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment performance. 49 United States Code § 30102(a)(9). Thus, a FMVSS does not establish the state of the art, or an optimal level of performance, but rather a minimum level of performance that a manufacturer must meet in order to sell its product. It has long been NHTSA’s position that a FMVSS “establishes only a minimum performance level.”
A manufacturer’s compliance with these minimum standards does not relieve a manufacturer from its common law duty to design safe vehicles. Congress has made it clear that compliance with a FMVSS does not constitute a defense in a product liability suit. 49 U.S.C. § 30103. See H.R. Rep. No. 1776, 89th Cong. 2nd Sess. (1966) at 24 (“It is intended, and this subsection [§ 108(c) of the original Safety Act] specifically establishes, that compliance with safety standards is not to be a defense or otherwise to affect the rights of parties under common law particularly those relating to warranty, contract, and tort liability.”) In other words, FMVSSs do not define a manufacturer’s total or complete responsibility for the safe design of its motor vehicles; and mere compliance with applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards does not relieve a manufacturer of its duty to safely design its products. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are not intended to define what is a safe product under all circumstances, or to relieve a manufacturer from its responsibility to design a safe product.
Further, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards do not cover every aspect of performance of motor vehicles and equipment. The agency does not have the resources to perform such a huge and nearly infinite undertaking. By way of example, FMVSS 209, Seat Belt Assemblies, provides only certain minimum performance requirements for seat belt assemblies, but does not test seat belts dynamically in a crash test or a sled test, with an anthropomorphic dummy and injury criteria. In fact, none of NHTSA’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, including FMVSS 208, Occupant Crash Protection, contain a dynamic crash test or sled test of rear seat restraints. Most items on the vehicle, and most aspects of performance, are not regulated. Rather, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards cover only a limited number of aspects of performance
NHTSA has repeatedly urged manufacturers to design their products to do more than merely meet the minimum “floor” required in NHTSA’s standards. Unfortunately for consumers, the truth is that many manufacturers have treated the standards more like ceilings on safety performance than floors from which to improve safety.
There are now more than fifty Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. They are identified by numbers, for example FMVSS 208. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are located in section 571 of volume 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The 100 series of FMVSS are crash avoidance standards, governing such things as windshield wipers (FMVSS 104), headlamps (FMVSS 108), and tires (FMVSS 109 and 119). The 200 series are crashworthiness standards, regulating devices such as air bags (FMVSS 208), child safety seats (FMVSS 213), and roof crush (FMVSS 216). The 300 series are post-crash standards governing issues like fuel system leakage (FMVSS 301) and flammability of interior materials.
It is significant to note that a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard does not exist for every item of motor vehicle equipment. There is also not a FMVSS for every safety risk. For example, there is no FMVSS for rollover resistance.
NHTSA has the general authority in the Safety Act to modify, upgrade any or all of the other Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, but, as a practical matter, is limited by resources, and politics.