CANADA: OCCUPANT PROTECTION SYSTEMS The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6. G/TBT/Notif. 95.354. 1. Member to Agreement notifying: CANADA. If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2): 2. Agency responsible: Department of Transport. 3. Notified under Article 2.9.2. 4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): Occupant protection systems. 5. Title and number of pages of the notified document: Proposed Amendment to the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (pages 4131-4160). 6. Description of content: Modern technology offers two types of occupant restraint system: primary and supplemental. The manual three-point seat-belt system, which consists of a combined lap and shoulder belt anchored to the vehicle in three locations, offers primary protection in that it restrains the wearer and prevents the occupant from being ejected from the vehicle. Air bags, which are usually installed at both the driver and passenger seating positions and automatically deploy in the event of an accident, are designed to offer supplemental protection to the head, neck and chest. Manual seat-belt and air-bag systems are also classified as providing either active or passive protection because seat-belts must be engaged by the occupant while air bags inflate on their own. Research indicates that if certain design refinements made to occupant protection systems over the last decade were available on all vehicles, many of the head, chest, and abdominal injuries that occur on Canadian roadways could be avoided. (1) It is now possible to prevent the driver's head from hitting the steering assembly; to significantly reduce the force of head impacts with the A-pillars, dashboard, and windshield; and to minimize the chest and abdominal injuries caused by incorrectly positioned seat-belts. (2) Many currently available occupant restraint systems already offer such protection; however, in order to ensure that all seat-belt and air-bag systems provide the highest practicable margin of safety, it is necessary that the legislation governing these systems be kept current. 7. Objective and rationale: Protection of human safety. 8. Relevant documents: Canada Gazette, Part I, 2 December 1995. 9. Proposed date of adoption and entry into force: 1 September 1997. 10. Final date for comments: 1 March 1996. (363)

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