On Jan. 19, 2011, NHTSA will published a final rule in the Federal Register establishing a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 226, “Ejection Mitigation,” to reduce the partial and complete ejection of vehicle occupants through side windows in crashes, particularly rollover crashes. The new standard will apply to passenger cars, MPVs, trucks and buses with a GVWR 4,536 kg or less, except walk-in vans, modified roof vehicles and convertibles. Also excluded are law enforcement vehicles, correctional institution vehicles, taxis and limos, if they have a fixed security partition separating the 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd rows and if they are produced by more than one manufacturer or are altered.
As finalized, the standard adopts a component test that assures there is full coverage of the side window to diminish the potential risk of the windows as ejection portals. As was proposed in the NPRM, the test uses a guided Impactor to assess the ability of the countermeasure (e.g., a curtain system) to mitigate ejections in different types of rollover and side impact crashes involving different occupant kinematics. In the test, the countermeasure must retain the linear travel of the Impactor such that the Impactor must not travel 100 mm beyond the location of the inside surface of the vehicle glazing. To evaluate the performance of the curtain to fully cover potential ejection routes, the Impactor will typically target four specific locations per side window adjacent to the first three rows of the vehicle. Small windows will be tested with fewer targets. In the standard’s test procedure, the ejection mitigation side countermeasure will be tested at two impact speeds and at two different points in time, to ensure that the system will retain the occupant from the relatively early through the late stages of a rollover. The first impact will be at 20 km/h (12.4 mph), 1.5 seconds after deployment of the curtain. The second impact will be at 16 km/h (9.9 mph), 6 seconds after deployment of the curtain. Per the rule, vehicle manufacturers must also provide information to NHTSA upon request that describes the conditions under which ejection mitigation air bags will deploy.
Manufacturer must begin phasing in the new requirements starting 9/1/13. Full fleetwide compliance is required by 9/1/17. The rule gives manufacturers the ability to start earning advance credits beginning 3/1/11 that can be used during the phase-in period. Limited line manufacturers are exempt from the phase-in and thus have until 9/1/17 to comply while multi-stage manufacturers and alterers have until 9/1/18 to comply.
NHTSA estimates that the rule will save 373 lives and prevent 476 serious injuries per year at a cost of $31 per vehicles.
Petitions for reconsideration will be due March 5, 2011.
NHTSA contact: Lou Molino, (202) 366-1740.
Docket reference: NHTSA-2010-0004.
