National Highway Traffic Safety Administration November 23, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to Section 14(g) of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration established a child restraint consumer information rating program. This program conducts a yearly assessment on the ease of using add-on child restraints and provides these ratings to the public. The program has been successful in encouraging child restraint manufacturers to improve their harness designs, labels, and manuals such that most now receive the top rating. However, some recent research, as well as a February 2007 public meeting held by the agency on the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system has indicated that some features that make child restraints easier to use are not being captured by the current program. Additionally, the agency wants to make sure that the program continues to provide useful information to the public. In an effort to further enhance the program and provide consumers with updated information we are proposing some new features and new rating criteria, and to adjust the scoring system. The agency anticipates that these program changes will result in more child restraints being used correctly by continuing to encourage manufacturers to install more features that help make the restraints easier to use.