Opinion ID: 2611859
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Heading: The Safety Act and Its Standards

Text: Congress passed the Safety Act (15 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. ) in 1966 to reduce traffic accidents and deaths and injuries to persons resulting from traffic accidents. [3] Congress authorized the Secretary of Transportation to formulate safety standards to protect the motoring public against an unreasonable risk of injury due to the design, construction or performance of motor vehicles.... [4] The Secretary of Transportation delegated the duty of writing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (Safety Administration). 49 C.F.R. § 1.50. The federal safety standards appear at 49 C.F.R. §§ 571.1 to 571.302. The relevant safety standards are Occupant Crash Protection, 49 C.F.R. § 571.208 (Standard 208), and Seat Belt Assemblies, 49 C.F.R. § 571.209. Since the inception of these standards, there has been a national controversy on the question of whether passive restraints such as airbags should be mandatory or optional. Standard 208 originally required nothing more than seatbelts in newly manufactured automobiles. The United States Supreme Court cited 32 Fed.Reg. 2415 as the primary source. Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. State Farm Mut., 463 U.S. 29, 34, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2862, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983). Responding to sporadic seatbelt use by the public and a high rate of traffic injuries and fatalities, in 1969 the Department of Transportation began requiring installation of passive restraints in new cars. Id. at 35, 103 S.Ct. at 2862. The Safety Administration reviewed two kinds of passive restraint crash protection systems  airbags and automatic seatbelts. Keith C. Miller, Deflating the Airbag Preemption Controversy, 37 EMORY L.J. 897, 902 (1988). Over the next fifteen years, other passive restraint systems were proposed and rejected due to their unpopularity with the public or carmakers. In addition, changes in administrations and national priorities during these years brought a number of successors with different agendas to the position of Secretary of Transportation. As a result, about sixty rulemaking notices were issued that imposed, amended, rescinded, reimposed, and now rescinded again the requirement for car manufacturers to install passive restraints. Motor Vehicle Mfrs., 463 U.S. at 34, 103 S.Ct. at 2862. [5] In effect since 1973, Standard 208 allowed manufacturers to choose one of three options for cars made between 1973 and 1986. Passive protection need not be by airbag but must meet specific Standard 208 criteria. By giving carmakers a choice of safety restraint options, Congress hoped to stimulate research, development, and competition. S.Rep. No. 1301, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 1, 4 (1966), reprinted in 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2709, 2712. The element of choice is considered a central feature of the Safety Act's regulatory scheme. See, e.g., Pokorny v. Ford Motor Co., 902 F.2d 1116, 1123 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 853, 111 S.Ct. 147, 112 L.Ed.2d 113 (1990); Taylor v. General Motors Corp., 875 F.2d 816, 827 (11th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1065, 110 S.Ct. 1781, 108 L.Ed.2d 783 (1990). The industry's reluctance to install airbags has led to numerous lawsuits against carmakers by people injured in automobiles not equipped with airbags. See, e.g., Wood v. General Motors Corp., 865 F.2d 395, 400 (1st Cir.1988) (In addition to the present action, about two dozen other suits have been recently filed claiming that an automobile was defectively designed because it lacked passive [airbag] restraints.), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1065, 110 S.Ct. 1781, 108 L.Ed.2d 782 (1990). The issue in those cases  whether, in light of the Safety Act options permitting but not requiring airbags, a manufacturer can be liable in a common-law action for not installing an airbag  parallels the issue here. In the present case, instead of an airbag claim, Plaintiff sued the carmaker for failing to install a lap belt even though the Safety Act allegedly permitted the option of a two-point passive restraint system without a manual lap belt. We recognize, as did the Supreme Court and the Safety Administration, that airbags and three-point seatbelts significantly reduce traffic accident injuries and fatalities. [6]