Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection

This document responds, in part, to petitions for reconsideration of the amendments we made in December 2001 to our May 2000 Advanced Air Bag Rule. Because of time constraints faced by vehicle manufacturers in certifying a portion of their fleet to the advanced air bag requirements, we bifurcated our response. This document addresses detailed seat and dummy positioning procedures. In particular, we are responding to those portions regarding seat positioning procedures when using the 5th percentile adult female test dummy in the barrier test and the low risk deployment test; when using the 3-year-old and 6-year-old test dummies in the low risk deployment test; the fore and aft seat location for rear facing child restraint systems (RFCRSs); and the seat track position for the low risk deployment test. This document responds to test dummy positioning procedure issues, specifically those addressing foot positioning of the 5th percentile adult female test dummy; positioning out-of-position test dummies; and positioning of test dummy hands. This document amends the definition of "Plane B" and "Plane D" as they relate to test dummy positioning, Point 1 under the low risk deployment tests, and addresses other reference points and definitions. This document also amends the list of child restraint systems required for certain compliance testing. A previous document has already dealt with the time sensitive issues and minor technical issues raised in the petitions for reconsideration.