National Highway Traffic Safety Administration February 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from the public, it must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed collections of information, including extensions and reinstatements of previously approved collections. This document describes three collections of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval.

To address the problem of rear underride crashes, Federal safety standards require heavy trailers and semitrailers to be equipped with underride guards. Compliance with these requirements is not practicable for vehicles featuring work-performing equipment mounted in the area where an underride guard would normally be located. These trailers and semitrailers are designated as ``special purpose vehicles'' and are excluded from the standard. On November 5, 2004, we published a final rule amending the definition of ``special purpose vehicles'' in order to clarify the exclusion by specifying the dimensions of the area where the work-performing equipment must reside or pass through in order for the exclusion to apply. On December 14, 2004, we were petitioned by the National Truck Equipment Association to reconsider the final rule because the amendment has had an unintended effect of narrowing the exclusion applicable to ``special purpose vehicles.'' In response to that petition for reconsideration, this document further amends the definition of a ``special purpose vehicle'' to exclude a specific group of vehicles that cannot comply with the underride guard requirements in a practicable manner.

This notice announces the Fourteenth Public Meeting of members of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network. CIREN is a collaborative effort to conduct research on crashes and injuries at eight Level 1 Trauma Centers linked by a computer network. Researchers can review data and share expertise, which could lead to a better understanding of crash injury mechanisms and the design of safer vehicles.

This notice seeks comments about what revisions are needed for the Model Specifications for Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Devices (Model Specifications) published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the Federal Register on April 7, 1992 (57 FR 11772). Model specifications are guidelines for the performance and testing of breath alcohol ignition interlock devices (BAIIDs). These devices are designed to prevent a driver from starting a motor vehicle when the driver's breath alcohol content (BrAC) is at or above a set alcohol level. Because changes may be necessary after more than 13 years of experience with this technology, NHTSA is seeking comments regarding the need for revisions to the model specifications.

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 December 1, 2005 in Volume 70, Number 230 on pages 72145- 72146.

This notice solicits public comments on continuation of the requirements for the collection of information on safety standards. Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from the public, it must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed collections of information, including extensions and reinstatement of previously approved collections. This document describes a collection of information on the advanced air bag phase-in requirements of the Federal motor vehicle safety standard on occupant protection for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval.

Section 402 of title 23 of the United States Code requires the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate uniform guidelines for State highway safety programs. NHTSA is seeking comments on proposed amendments to six (6) of the existing guidelines to reflect program methodology and approaches that have proven to be successful and are based in sound science and program administration. The guidelines the agency proposes to revise are as follows: Guideline No. 3 Motorcycle Safety, Guideline No. 8 Impaired Driving, Guideline No. 14 Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety, Guideline No. 15 Traffic Enforcement Services (formerly Police Traffic Services), Guideline No. 19 Speed Management (formerly Speed Control), and Guideline No. 20 Occupant Protection. NHTSA believes the proposed revisions will provide more accurate, current and detailed guidance to the States. The revised guidelines will be made publicly available on the NHTSA Web site.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announces a grant program to improve State traffic safety information systems under Section 2006 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (SAFETEA-LU). This Notice informs the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, through their Governors' Representatives for Highway Safety, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (on behalf of the Indian tribes), of the application procedures to receive grants to be made available in fiscal years 2006 through 2009.