Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Theft Protection

This rule makes a temporary change in the requirement of Standard No. 114, Theft Prevention, that vehicles with automatic transmissions be equipped with a transmission lock that prevents key removal unless the transmission is locked in park or becomes locked in park as a direct result of removing the key. The purpose of this requirement is to prevent rollaway crashes caused by unattended children pulling the transmission lever out of park. Due to apparent confusion concerning the scope of the requirement and the effect of that confusion on transmission designs, the requirement will be changed until September 1, 1996. Until that time, the transmission lock will only be required to prevent key removal when the transmission is fully engaged in a detent position other than park (e.g., reverse, neutral, drive). After that date, the requirements will revert to their previous form, prohibiting key removal in all positions other than park. This rule also corrects, by technical amendment, an error in the language of the provision that permits transmission lock override devices to facilitate towing disabled vehicles. The existing language inadvertently requires steering lock-up even for vehicles whose override devices are operated by the vehicle key. Requiring steering column lock-up on automatic transmission locks with a key operated override device would not provide added protection against theft since the key that would operate the device would also unlock the steering. The technical amendment excludes these vehicles from the steering lock- up requirement.