National Highway Traffic Safety Administration July 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule sets forth requirements and procedures for the voluntary vehicle trade-in and purchase/lease program under the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009. This program helps consumers pay for a new, more fuel efficient car or truck from a participating dealer when they trade in a less fuel efficient car or truck. The rule establishes a process by which dealers can register in order to participate in the program and establishes the criteria this agency will use to determine which disposal facilities are eligible to receive and either crush or shred the trade-in vehicles. It also sets forth the criteria that trade-in vehicles and new vehicles must meet in order for purchases and leases to qualify for assistance under this program and establishes the requirements that must be met by consumers, dealers, disposal facilities and others. Finally, the rule sets forth enforcement procedures and provisions for punishing fraud and other violations of the program requirements.

NHTSA intends to establish a system of records under the Privacy Act of 1974 as part of its Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save program (CARS program), which implements the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (CARS Act). The system of records will contain personally identifiable information (PII) about individual car purchasers/lessees and may contain PII about a limited number of sole proprietor automobile salvage auctions and disposal facilities participating in the CARS Program, which is a temporary program covering eligible automobile purchases/leases occurring between July 1, 2009 and November 1, 2009. The system of records is more thoroughly detailed below and in the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) that NHTSA will include in the docket for the CARS final rule at https:// www.regulations.gov, being published in the Federal Register on or about July 24, 2009 and on the DOT Privacy Web site at https:// www.dot.gov/privacy.

This document grants in full the Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC.'s (MBUSA) petition for exemption of the SLK Class Line Chassis (SLK- Class) vehicle line in accordance with 49 CFR part 543, Exemption from the Theft Prevention Standard. This petition is granted because the agency has determined that the antitheft device to be placed on the line as standard equipment is likely to be as effective in reducing and deterring motor vehicle theft as compliance with the parts-marking requirements of the Theft Prevention Standard (49 CFR part 541).

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 May 14, 2009 [FR Doc. 2009- 0096, Vol. 74, No. 92, Pages 22800-22801].

This final rule delays the compliance date of the sliding door provisions of a February 6, 2007 final rule, from September 1, 2009 to September 1, 2010. The February 6, 2007, final rule amended the Federal motor vehicle safety standard on door locks and door retention components to add and update requirements and test procedures and to harmonize with the world's first global technical regulation for motor vehicles. NHTSA received four petitions for reconsideration of that final rule, including two that requested a delay in the effective date of the sliding door provisions of the rule, and others which raised concerns about some of the new test requirements and procedures. To accommodate manufacturers' design and production cycles while allowing the agency more time to analyze the petitions in regards to other issues, the agency is delaying the compliance date of the sliding door provisions of S4.2.2 until September 1, 2010.

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 February 19, 2009 [FR Doc. 2009-0037, Vol. 74, No. 32, Pages 7737-7738].

The purpose of this request for comments is to solicit and acquire public comment on the NHTSA's ``Vehicle Safety Rulemaking and Research Priority Plan 2009-2011.'' The plan is not an exhaustive list. Only programs and projects that are priorities or will take significant agency resources are listed. Furthermore, NHTSA's enforcement, data collection, and analysis programsvital elements in achieving NHTSA's goalshave their own set of priorities that are not listed here. Each of these programs supports NHTSA's rulemaking and research priorities by providing necessary safety data, economic analysis, expertise on test procedures, and technical issues gleaned from enforcement experience. The plan is an internal management tool as well as a means to communicate to the public NHTSA's highest priorities to meet the Nation's motor vehicle safety challenges. Among them are programs and projects involving rollover crashes, children (both inside as well as just near vehicles), motorcoaches and fuel economy that must meet Congressional mandates or Secretarial commitments. NHTSA is also currently in the process of developing a longer-term motor vehicle safety strategic plan that would encompass the period 2012 to 2020., and will be announced in a separate Federal Register notice.