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Statement of Need: While current air bags have been shown to be highly effective in reducing overall fatalities, they sometimes cause fatalities to out-of-position occupants, especially children. As part of NHTSA's program to mitigate adverse effects of current-design air bags, the agency has stated that the next step in the evolution of air bags would be systems that automatically prevent those effects. As of June 1, 1998, the agency was aware of 61 children and 44 adults who had been killed by current air bags. The agency has already required more graphic warning labels on all new air-bag-equipped vehicles, enhanced manufacturers' flexibility to reduce the aggressivity of current-design air bags, allowed consumers in certain defined risk groups to install retrofit on-off switches for air bags, and participated in public programs to increase safety belt and child restraint use, to reduce fatalities. This program will pursue the next step: air bags incorporating advanced technologies.

Summary of the Legal Basis: Section 30111, Title 49 of the United States Code, states that the Secretary shall prescribe motor vehicle safety standards. Section 7103 of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Reauthorization Act of 1998 requires the Secretary to issue amendments to improve occupant protection for occupants of different sizes, belted and unbelted, under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, while minimizing the risk to infants, children, and other occupants from injuries and deaths caused by air bags, by means that include advanced air bags. Authority to prescribe such standards is delegated to the Administrator by 49 CFR 1.50.

Alternatives: The agency has been participating with motor vehicle manufacturers, equipment suppliers, the insurance industry, and academia through the Advanced Air Bag Technology Working Group of NHTSA's Motor Vehicle Research Advisory Committee. The agency has been utilizing the resources of this partnership in identifying alternatives for this proposed rulemaking. Moreover, the agency joined with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in a comprehensive state-of-the-art assessment for near-term air bag technology. As a result of these partnerships and due to its own internal research efforts, the agency is aware of the various advanced air bag technologies currently being seriously considered by the vehicle manufacturers. The proposed rule would permit the use of these technologies which include: suppression systems that could include weight sensors and/or proximity or positioning sensors, low-risk air bags that could include dual or multi-stage inflators, added or redesigned crash sensors, and/or modified fold patterns.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: The agency estimates that the costs of the proposed rule would be up to $162 per vehicle, for an estimated total of up to $2.5 billion for 15.5 million vehicles per year. Property damage savings could exceed $2.4 billion annually depending on the extent to which manufacturers use air bag suppression systems. Several hundred lives could be saved annually, as well as a currently unquantified number of serious injuries.

Risks: Air bags have been shown to substantially reduce fatalities in traffic crashes. When fully implemented, NHTSA estimates that air bags will save 3,000 lives per year and prevent about 34,000 moderate-to-critical injuries. However, current air bags deploy the same way for all occupants, regardless of their size or location at the time of deployment and regardless of crash severity. As a result of the designs of current air bags, there have been adult and child fatalities caused by the air bag. Therefore, the development and introduction of advanced air bags is being pursued aggressively by both the industry and the agency.