Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 964.0

529US3

Unit: $U62

[09-26-01 12:54:02] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 861 (2000)

889

Stevens, J., dissenting

was “to reduce trafﬁc accidents and deaths and injuries to
persons resulting from trafﬁc accidents.” 15 U. S. C. § 1381.
The Act directed the Secretary of Transportation or his dele-
gate to issue motor vehicle safety standards that “shall be
practicable, shall meet the need for motor vehicle safety, and
shall be stated in objective terms.” § 1392(a). The Act de-
ﬁnes the term “safety standard” as a “minimum standard
for motor vehicle performance, or motor vehicle equipment
performance.”

§ 1391(2).

Standard 208 covers “[o]ccupant crash protection.”

Its
purpose “is to reduce the number of deaths of vehicle occu-
pants, and the severity of injuries, by specifying vehicle
crashworthiness requirements . . . [and] equipment require-
ments for active and passive restraint systems.” 49 CFR
§ 571.208, S2 (1998). The ﬁrst version of that standard, is-
sued in 1967, simply required the installation of manual seat-
belts in all automobiles. Two years later the Secretary for-
mally proposed a revision that would require the installation
of “passive occupant restraint systems,” that is to say, de-
vices that do not depend for their effectiveness on any action
by the vehicle occupant. The airbag is one such system.2
The Secretary’s proposal led to a series of amendments to
Standard 208 that imposed various passive restraint require-
ments, culminating in a 1977 regulation that mandated such
restraints in all cars by the model year 1984. The two com-
mercially available restraints that could satisfy this mandate

2 “The airbag is an inﬂatable device concealed in the dashboard and
It automatically inﬂates when a sensor indicates that
steering column.
deceleration forces from an accident have exceeded a preset minimum,
then rapidly deﬂates to dissipate those forces. The lifesaving potential of
these devices was immediately recognized, and in 1977, after substantial
on-the-road experience with both devices, it was estimated by [the Na-
tional Highway Trafﬁc Safety Administration (NHTSA)] that passive re-
straints could prevent approximately 12,000 deaths and over 100,000 seri-
ous injuries annually.
42 Fed. Reg. 34298.” Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn.
of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U. S.
29, 35 (1983).