scope:

SUMMARY: This final rule amends the Federal motor vehicle safety standard that specifies performance requirements for motorcycle helmets to reduce traumatic brain injury and other types of head injury. Some of the amendments will help to increase the benefits of that standard by making it easier for State and local law enforcement officials to enforce State laws requiring the use of helmets meeting that standard. Some motorcyclists use noncompliant helmets known as novelty helmets. These helmets are not certified to the agency's helmet standard and have been shown in testing to fail all or almost all of the safety performance requirements in that standard. Some novelty helmet users attempt to make their helmets appear to law enforcement agencies and the courts to be compliant by misleadingly attaching labels that have the appearance of legitimate ''DOT'' certification labels. This final rule revises the existing requirements for the ''DOT'' certification label and other labels and adds new requirements to make it more difficult to label novelty helmets misleadingly.

The other amendments will aid NHTSA in enforcing the standard by setting reasonable tolerances for certain test conditions, devices and procedures. Specifically, this final rule sets a quasistatic load application rate for the helmet retention system; revises the impact attenuation test by specifying test velocity and tolerance limits and removing the drop height test specification; provides tolerances for the helmet conditioning specifications and drop assembly weights; and revises requirements related to size labeling and location of the DOT symbol.