Department of Transportation April 6, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FMCSA announces that its Information Collection Request (ICR) described below has been sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR describes a proposed collection activity involving all motor carriers who operate small passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) and its expected cost and burden. A Federal Register notice allowing for a 60-day comment period on the ICR was published on December 8, 2006. FMCSA received four comments to this docket, but only one of those comments addressed the information collection process set forth in this notice. This comment was considered during the development of the survey for this information collection.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD) for General Electric Company (GE) CF34-1A, -3A, -3A1, -3A2, -3B, and -3B1 turbofan engines. That AD requires a onetime inspection of certain fan disks for electrical arc-out indications, replacing fan disks with electrical arc-out indications, and reducing the life limit of certain fan disks. This AD requires the same reduced life limit of certain fan disks, but requires on-wing inspection of certain fan disks installed on regional jets within 500 flight hours after the effective date of this AD. This AD also requires more enhanced shop-level inspections of all fan disks for electrical arc-out defects. This AD results from a report that in January 2007, a CF34-3B1 turbofan engine experienced an uncontained fan disk failure during flight operation. We are issuing this AD to prevent an uncontained fan disk failure and airplane damage.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is amending its commercial space transportation regulations under the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. The FAA is establishing application requirements for an operator of a manned or unmanned reusable suborbital rocket to obtain an experimental permit. The FAA is also establishing operating requirements and restrictions on launch and reentry of reusable suborbital rockets operated under a permit.

Sabine Pass LNG, L.P. (SPLNG) requested a waiver of compliance from the Federal pipeline safety regulation that requires liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities constructed after March 31, 2000 to comply with the National Fire Protection Association's Standard 59A (NFPA 59A), 2001 Edition. The waiver specifically requested permission to use ultrasonic examination as an acceptable alternative non-destructive testing method for welds on LNG tanks.

As part of a comprehensive plan for reducing the serious risk of rollover crashes and the risk of death and serious injury in those crashes, this document establishes a new Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) No. 126 to require electronic stability control (ESC) systems on passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 Kg (10,000 pounds) or less. ESC systems use automatic computer-controlled braking of individual wheels to assist the driver in maintaining control in critical driving situations in which the vehicle is beginning to lose directional stability at the rear wheels (spin out) or directional control at the front wheels (plow out). Preventing single-vehicle loss-of-control crashes is the most effective way to reduce deaths resulting from rollover crashes. This is because most loss-of-control crashes culminate in the vehicle leaving the roadway, which dramatically increases the probability of a rollover. Based on the best available data, drawn from crash data studies, NHTSA estimates that the installation of ESC will reduce single-vehicle crashes of passenger cars by 34 percent and single vehicle crashes of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) by 59 percent, with a much greater reduction of rollover crashes. NHTSA estimates that ESC has the potential to prevent 71 percent of the passenger car rollovers and 84 percent of the SUV rollovers that would otherwise occur in single-vehicle crashes. NHTSA estimates that ESC would save 5,300 to 9,600 lives and prevent 156,000 to 238,000 injuries in all types of crashes annually once all light vehicles on the road are equipped with ESC systems. The agency further anticipates that ESC systems would substantially reduce (by 4,200 to 5,500) the more than 10,000 deaths each year on American roads resulting from rollover crashes. Manufacturers equipped about 29 percent of model year (MY) 2006 light vehicles sold in the U.S. with ESC, and intend to increase the percentage to 71 percent by MY 2011. This rule requires installation of ESC in 100 percent of light vehicles by MY 2012 (with exceptions for some vehicles manufactured in stages or by small volume manufacturers). Once all light vehicles in the fleet have ESC, of the overall projected annual 5,300 to 9,600 highway deaths and 156,000 to 238,000 injuries prevented by stability control systems installed either voluntarily or under this rulemaking, we would attribute 1,547 to 2,534 prevented fatalities (including 1,171 to 1,465 involving rollover) to this rulemaking, in addition to the prevention of 46,896 to 65,801 injuries by increasing the percentage of light vehicles with ESC from 71 percent to 100 percent.