National Highway Traffic Safety Administration February 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collections and their expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on August 13, 2004 [FR Doc. 04-18536, Vol. 69, No. 156, Pages 50234-50235].

The final rule amends four different parts of title 49 to address the certification issues related to vehicles built in two or more stages and, to a lesser degree, to altered vehicles. The amendments allow the use of pass-through certification so that it can be used not only for multi-stage vehicles based on chassis-cabs, but also for those based on other types of incomplete vehicles. The amendments also create a new process under which intermediate and final-stage manufacturers and alterers can obtain temporary exemptions from dynamic performance requirements, and provide an automatic one year of additional lead time for new safety requirements for intermediate and final-stage manufacturers and alterers, unless the agency determines with respect to a particular requirement that a longer or shorter time period is appropriate. This final rule also refines the agency's interpretation of ``vehicle type'' to more appropriately reflect the congressional and judicial considerations. Because vehicles built in two or more stages are more properly considered a ``vehicle type,'' the agency will be able more properly to consider the benefits and burdens of various compliance options when developing Federal motor vehicle standards.

This notice denies petitions for reconsideration submitted by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Alliance) of the August 20, 2004, final rule on advanced air bag provisions in the occupant crash protection standard. We are denying the first petition because it references a test procedure that the agency has not yet proposed, for which an effective date will be proposed when a Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) seat installation procedure is published. We are denying the second petition because we have previously responded to the same issue and no new data have been presented.

This notice announces NHTSA's publication of a technical report summarizing and comparing the findings in 38 Assessments of State programs to control impaired driving. The report's title is Impaired-Driving Program AssessmentsA Summary of Recommendations (1991 to 2003).