National Highway Traffic Safety Administration September 2008 – 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 Friday, May 2, 2008 [U.S. DOT Docket No. NHTSA-2008-0091, Federal Register Vol. 73, Pages 24349-24350].

This document responds to a petition for reconsideration of our 2006 final rule increasing the maximum gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) for low speed vehicles (LSVs) to 3,000 pounds. The agency established a GVWR limit (initially set at 2,500 pounds) in order to provide an objective means to delineate between vehicles for which the limited LSV requirements are appropriate and those that can be designed to meet the full set of Federal motor vehicle safety standards. Our 2006 final rule increased the limit to 3,000 pounds, in order to accommodate the heavier weight of load-carrying LSVs and electric batteries. A petition for reconsideration was received from Electronic Transportation Applications (ETA), which seeks to further increase the GVWR limit for electric-powered LSVs to 4,000 pounds, as well as to add additional regulations to regulate braking performance and tire specifications. The agency is denying the petitioner's request for the reasons discussed in this document.

This document adopts fees for Fiscal Year 2009 and until further notice, as authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30141, relating to the registration of importers and the importation of motor vehicles not certified as conforming to the Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS). These fees are needed to maintain the registered importer (RI) program. We are increasing the fees for the registration of a new RI from $677 to $760 and the annual fee for renewing an existing registration from $570 to $651. These fees include the costs of maintaining the RI program. The fee required to reimburse Customs for conformance bond processing costs will increase from $9.77 to $10.23 per bond. We are decreasing the fees to be collected from the importer of each vehicle covered by an import eligibility decision made on an individual make, model, and model year basis. For vehicles determined eligible based on their substantial similarity to a U.S. certified vehicle, the fee will decrease from $208 to $198. For vehicles determined eligible based on their capability of being modified to comply with all applicable FMVSS, the fee will also decrease from $208 to $198. In the event that a petitioner requests an inspection of a vehicle, the fee for such an inspection will remain $827 for vehicles that are the subject of either type of petition. The fee that an RI must pay as a processing cost for review of each conformity package that it submits to NHTSA will increase to $14 from $13 per certificate. If the vehicle has been entered electronically with Customs through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) and the registered importer has an e-mail address, the fee for processing the conformity package will continue to be $6, provided the fee is paid by credit card. However, if NHTSA finds that the information in the entry or the conformity package is incorrect, the processing fee will be $48, representing no change from the fee that is currently charged when there are one or more errors in the ABI entry or omissions in the statement of conformity.

In accordance with the procedures in 49 CFR Part 555, Think Technology AS has petitioned the agency for a temporary exemption from certain advanced air bag requirements of FMVSS No. 208. The basis for the application is that the exemption would make the development or field evaluation of a low-emission vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower the safety or impact protection level of the vehicle.\1\

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of two petitions for a decision that certain 1997-2001 Jeep Cherokee multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs) that were not originally manufactured to comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) are eligible for importation into the United States because (1) they are substantially similar to vehicles that were originally manufactured for sale in the United States and that were certified by their manufacturer as complying with the safety standards, and (2) they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.

NHTSA is proposing to remove the sunset of a requirement in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, ``Occupant crash protection,'' that a vehicle's lap belt must be lockable to tightly secure a child restraint system. Under FMVSS No. 208, the requirement ceases to apply to designated seating positions that are equipped with a child restraint anchorage system on vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2012. This NPRM proposes to amend the standard such that the requirement will continue to apply after September 1, 2012, even when a child restraint anchorage system is present. Data indicate that motorists are still using vehicle belts to attach child restraint systems to a large degree, so the agency is seeking to ensure that lap belts continue to be lockable in vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2012.

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that 2005-2006 Mercedes Benz SLK class (171 chassis) passenger cars manufactured between August 31, 2004 and August 31, 2006 that were not originally manufactured to comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) are eligible for importation into the United States because (1) they are substantially similar to vehicles that were originally manufactured for sale in the United States and that were certified by their manufacturer as complying with the safety standards (the U.S.-certified version of the 2005-2006 Mercedes Benz SLK class (171 chassis) passenger cars manufactured between August 31, 2004 and August 31, 2006,) and (2) they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.