The revolutionary Chairiot solo – the most affordable, wheelchair accessible, street legal vehicle in the world – has passed an independent review of its conformance to the U.S. and Canadian Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) by engineers from the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association. It is the first and only vehicle of its type – an LSV certified under 49 CFR 571.500 – to pass review under NMEDA’s rigorous Compliance Review Process.

 

What this means is that mobility dealers and their customers can now be confident that the Chairiot solo has met the engineering and performance test requirements for the safety features required by U.S. and Canadian law. NMEDA established the Compliance Review Program in 2009 to certify that manufacturer’s vehicles meet the FMVSS. Under NMEDA’s supervision, a panel of independent engineers conducts reviews and then evaluates each vehicle based on requirements set by the National Highway Safety and Transportation Administration (NHTSA). A “Pass” indicates the standards have been met. All submissions to the NMEDA Compliance Review Program are voluntary.

 

For more information about NMEDA’s Compliance Review Program, go here: http://www.nmeda.com/crp/

 

Chairiot’s months-long effort on this project was led by Vice President Chuck Kondrack and assisted by Technical Director Ruben Fernandez. Our submission to NMEDA’s Compliance Review Program included over 100 pages of documentation, test data, photographs, component manufacturer’s certifications and and engineering information. Over a gigabyte of video shot during testing was also supplied to validate the results.

 

In addition to Chuck and Ruben, we need to thank Don Feeley, Dennis Wooldridge, Don Boykin, Duncan Webb and Traffic Management Inc. who contributed time, expertise, equipment and facilities to our testing effort.

 

Finally, but most importantly, thanks to Chuck Hardy and Harry Baergen at NMEDA for their assistance and support.

 

And that’s how we roll!