Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Child Restraint Systems

In response to a petition from a child restraint manufacturer, the agency issued an interim final rule published on October 22, 2002, and amended on November 28, 2003, adopting a temporary provision permitting the manufacture of harnesses for use on a school bus that attach to a school bus seat back. Harnesses and other types of child restraints are otherwise generally prohibited by the standard from having any means designed for attaching the system to a vehicle seat back. The provision is set to terminate on September 1, 2004. This final rule eliminates the termination date for that provision, thus extending indefinitely the permission for manufacture of the harnesses. The harnesses must bear a warning label informing users that the harness must be used only on school bus seats, and that the entire seat directly behind the child wearing the seat-mounted harness must be either unoccupied or occupied by restrained passengers.