Federal Motor Vehicle

Safety Standards

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) was written by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

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FMVSS 205 Glazing Materials
This standard specifies requirements for glazing materials used in motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment. The purpose of this standard is to reduce injuries resulting from impacts to glazing surfaces, to ensure a necessary degree of transparency in motor vehicle windows for driver visibility and to minimize the possibility of occupants being thrown through the vehicle windows in collisions. Requires manufacturers to use proper safety glass and mark accordingly.

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FMVSS 208 Occupant Crash Protection
This standard specifies performance requirements for the protection of vehicle occupants in crashes. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the number of deaths of vehicle occupants, and the severity of injuries, by specifying vehicle crash worthiness requirements in terms of forces and accelerations measured on a variety of anthropomorphic dummies in test crashes and static airbag deployment tests. This standard also specifies equipment requirements of active and passive restraint systems.

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15,000 fatalities or injuries every year from passenger ejection from vehicles during an accident.

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The operative words here are “air bags.” A passenger side air bag deploys off the windshield at 200 mph. If a windshield is not properly installed or if the urethane has not cured, the deployment of the passenger side air bag can eject the windshield and the passenger can also be easily ejected.

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FMVSS 212 Windshield Retention
This standard establishes windshield retention requirements for motor vehicles during crashes. The purpose of this standard is to reduce the crash injuries and fatalities by providing for retention of the vehicle windshield during a crash, in order to keep vehicle occupants within the confines of the passenger compartment.

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With manual seat belts, retention must be not less than 75% of windshield perimeter. With passive restraints, or “air bags,” retention must be not less than 50% on either side of the vehicle's longitudinal centerline. With manual seat belts, the windshield must sustain 56 psi and be retained in the vehicle. With passive restraints, the windshield must sustain 340 psi.

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FMVSS 216 Roof Crush Resistance
This standard establishes strength requirements for the passenger compartment roof to reduce deaths and injuries due to the crushing of the roof into the occupant compartment in rollover crashes.

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More than 9% of all accidents are of the rollover type.

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This establishes structural strength standards to protect vehicle occupants during a rollover. The roof must sustain no greater than a 5 inch movement when 1.5 times the vehicles weight is applied to the "A" pillar. The "A" pillar is the support between the windshield and the door opening.

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Contact Olsen's Auto Glass today for more information or a free quote!