Hot Cars Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3164 To require the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule that requires all new passenger motor vehicles to be equipped with a child safety alert system, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 12, 2021 Mr. RYAN (for himself and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To require the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule that requires all new passenger motor vehicles to be equipped with a child safety alert system, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hot Cars Act of 4 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3164 IH (1) Children and pets left unattended in vehi- 1 cles, or children independently accessing unoccupied 2 vehicles, are a significant public health and safety 3 problem. 4 (2) Millions of children are transported every 5 day in the back seat of vehicles and are at risk of 6 being unknowingly left behind and dying or suffering 7 serious injuries from heatstroke. 8 (3) Data collected by KidsAndCars.org found 9 information about at least 8,000 children left alone 10 in hot cars or as a result of gaining access independ- 11 ently into unoccupied cars between 1990 and 2020. 12 Of those, over 990 children have been killed due to 13 heatstroke and more than 1,200 children were in- 14 jured. 15 (4) Over the past 30 years, child hot car deaths 16 have continued to trend upwards despite widespread 17 education programs and public awareness. 18 (5) Inexpensive technology is currently available 19 to detect the presence of an occupant unattended in 20 a vehicle and engage a warning. 21 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to reduce 22 the deaths and injuries that result from occupants being 23 left unattended in vehicles and instances in which children 24 independently access an unoccupied vehicle. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3164 IH SEC. 3. SAFETY WARNING FOR OCCUPANTS OF HOT CARS. 1 (a) OCCUPANT SAFETY.— 2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of Chapter 3 301 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by 4 adding at the end the following new section: 5 ‘‘§ 30129. Occupant safety 6 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 7 ‘‘(1) PASSENGER MOTOR VEHICLE.—The term 8 ‘passenger motor vehicle’ has the meaning given that 9 term in section 32101. 10 ‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 11 the Secretary of Transportation. 12 ‘‘(b) RULEMAKING.—Not later than 2 years after the 13 date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall issue 14 a final rule prescribing a motor vehicle safety standard 15 that requires all new passenger motor vehicles with a gross 16 vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less to be 17 equipped with a system that detects the presence of an 18 unattended occupant in the passenger compartment of the 19 vehicle and engages a warning to reduce death and injury 20 resulting from vehicular heatstroke, particularly incidents 21 involving children. 22 ‘‘(c) LIMITATION ON CAPABILITY OF BEING DIS- 23 ABLED.—The motor vehicle safety standard prescribed 24 under subsection (b) shall require that the system de- 25 scribed in that subsection cannot be disabled, overridden, 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3164 IH reset, or recalibrated in such a way that the system will 1 no longer detect the presence of an unattended occupant 2 in the passenger compartment of the vehicle and engage 3 a warning. 4 ‘‘(d) MEANS.— 5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The warning required 6 under the motor vehicle safety standard prescribed 7 under subsection (b) shall include a distinct auditory 8 and visual warning to notify individuals inside and 9 outside of the vehicle of the presence of an unat- 10 tended occupant, which shall be combined with an 11 interior haptic warning. 12 ‘‘(2) CONSIDERATION.—In developing such 13 warning, the Secretary shall also consider including 14 a secondary additional warning to— 15 ‘‘(A) notify— 16 ‘‘(i) operators that are not in close 17 proximity to the vehicle; and 18 ‘‘(ii) emergency responders; and 19 ‘‘(B) provide the geographical location of 20 the vehicle in a manner that allows for an emer- 21 gency response. 22 ‘‘(e) COMPLIANCE DEADLINE.—The rule issued pur- 23 suant to subsection (b) shall require full compliance with 24 the motor vehicle safety standard prescribed in the rule 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3164 IH not later than 2 years after the date on which the final 1 rule is issued.’’. 2 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sec- 3 tions for subchapter II of chapter 301 of title 49, 4 United States Code, is amended by adding at the 5 end the following new item: 6 ‘‘30129. Occupant safety.’’. (b) STUDY.— 7 (1) INDEPENDENT STUDY.— 8 (A) CONTRACT.—Not later than 90 days 9 after the date on which a final rule is issued 10 pursuant to section 30129(b) of title 49, United 11 States Code, as added by subsection (a)(1), and 12 every two years thereafter, the Secretary shall 13 enter into a contract with an independent third 14 party to conduct the study described under sub- 15 paragraph (B). 16 (B) STUDY.— 17 (i) IN GENERAL.—Under the contract 18 between the Secretary and an independent 19 third party under subparagraph (A), the 20 independent third party shall carry out a 21 study on retrofitting passenger motor vehi- 22 cles introduced into interstate commerce 23 before the effective date of the rule re- 24 quired pursuant to section 30129(b) of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3164 IH title 49, United States Code, as added by 1 subsection (a)(1), with technologies and 2 products that meet the safety need ad- 3 dressed by the motor vehicle safety stand- 4 ard prescribed under such section. 5 (ii) ELEMENTS.—In carrying out the 6 study required under clause (i), the inde- 7 pendent third party shall— 8 (I) identify technologies and 9 products— 10 (aa) manufactured for use in 11 passenger motor vehicles intro- 12 duced into interstate commerce 13 before the effective date of the 14 rule required by section 30129(b) 15 of title 49, United States Code, 16 as added by subsection (a)(1); 17 and 18 (bb) that reduce death and 19 injury resulting from vehicular 20 heatstroke, particularly incidents 21 involving children; and 22 (II) make recommendations for 23 manufacturers of such technologies 24 and products to undergo a functional 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3164 IH safety performance assessment to en- 1 sure that the technologies and prod- 2 ucts perform as designed by the man- 3 ufacturer under a variety of real-world 4 conditions. 5 (2) PUBLICATION; PUBLIC COMMENT.—Not 6 later than 2 years after the date on which the Sec- 7 retary enters into a contract pursuant to paragraph 8 (1)(A), and every two years thereafter, the Secretary 9 shall— 10 (A) publish the study required under para- 11 graph (1)(B) in the Federal Register; and 12 (B) provide a period for public comment of 13 not longer than 90 days after the date on which 14 the study is published pursuant to subpara- 15 graph (A). 16 (3) CONSUMER INFORMATION.—Not later than 17 120 days after expiration of the public comment pe- 18 riod described under paragraph (2)(B) and upon re- 19 view of the public comments, the Secretary shall pro- 20 vide information for consumers through the website 21 of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administra- 22 tion on the performance of the technologies and 23 products described in paragraph (1)(B)(ii) to retrofit 24 existing vehicles. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 3164 IH (4) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Upon issuance 1 of the recommendations required under paragraph 2 (1)(B), the Secretary shall submit to the Committee 3 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 4 Senate and the Committee on Energy and Com- 5 merce of the House of Representatives the study and 6 recommendations required by paragraph (1)(B), in- 7 cluding any public comment received under para- 8 graph (2)(B). 9 (5) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 10 (A) CHILD RESTRAINT SYSTEM.—The 11 term ‘‘child restraint system’’ has the meaning 12 given that term in section 571.213 of title 49, 13 Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor 14 regulation). 15 (B) INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY.—The 16 term ‘‘independent third party’’ means a manu- 17 facturer (as defined in section 30102 of title 18 49, Code of Federal Regulations (or any suc- 19 cessor regulation)) that does not receive any di- 20 rect financial assistance from an entity that 21 produces or supplies— 22 (i) equipment for the systems man- 23 dated in such section 30129; or 24 (ii) child restraint systems. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 3164 IH (C) PASSENGER MOTOR VEHICLE.—The 1 term ‘‘passenger motor vehicle’’ has the mean- 2 ing given that term in section 32101 of title 49, 3 United States Code. 4 (D) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 5 means the Secretary of Transportation. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:57 Jun 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3164.IH H3164 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS