National Highway Traffic Safety Administration April 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document responds to seven petitions for reconsideration submitted regarding our August 2004 final rule that amended the Federal motor vehicle safety standard on lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment. After careful review of the petitions, we are revising certain requirements of the standard pertaining to the visibility of lamps mounted on motorcycles to increase the compatibility of our visibility requirements with those of theUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE R53). We are otherwise denying the petitions.

This notice grants the petition for rulemaking submitted by the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) requesting that the agency amend the license plate holder requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 to allow motorcycles to mount license plates at an upward angle of up to 30 degrees.\1\ Based on the information received in MIC's petition and the petitions for reconsideration of the December 4, 2007 final rule reorganizing FMVSS No. 108,\2\ the agency believes that MIC's petition merits further consideration through the rulemaking process.

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 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), 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 an Information Collection Request (ICR) for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval.

This final rule announces NHTSA's determination that there are no new model year (MY) 2012 light duty truck lines subject to the parts-marking requirements of the Federal motor vehicle theft prevention standard because they have been determined by the agency to be high-theft or because they have a majority of interchangeable parts with those of a passenger motor vehicle line. This final rule also identifies those vehicle lines that have been granted an exemption from the parts-marking requirements because the vehicles are equipped with antitheft devices determined to meet certain statutory criteria.

This notice announces the publication of Model Performance Measures for State Traffic Records Systems DOT HS 811 44, which proposes model performance measures for State traffic record systems to monitor the development and implementation of traffic record data systems, strategic plans, and data-improvement grants. These model performance measures are voluntary and are to help States monitor and improve the quality of the data in their traffic record systems

In accordance with the procedures in 49 CFR Part 555, Koenigsegg Automotive AB Koenigsegg'') and Morgan Motor Company Limited (``Morgan'') have petitioned the agency for renewals of temporary exemption from advanced air bag requirements of FMVSS No. 208, ``Occupant crash protection.''The basis for each application is that compliance would cause substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that has tried in good faith to comply with the standard. This notice of receipt of applications for renewal of temporary exemptions is published in accordance with the statutory provisions of 49 U.S.C. 30113(b)(2). Please note that we are publishing together the notice of receipt of the two applications for renewal to ensure efficient use of agency resources and to facilitate processing of the applications. NHTSA has made no judgments on the merits of each application. NHTSA will consider each application separately. We ask that commenters also consider each application separately and submit comments specific to individual applications.

This Final Rule amends the regulation establishing uniform criteria for designing and conducting State seat belt use observational surveys and the procedures for obtaining NHTSA approval of survey designs, and provides a new form for reporting seat belt use rates to NHTSA. Since the adoption of the Uniform Criteria in 1998, NHTSA and the States have accumulated substantial experience in the design and implementation of seat belt use surveys. This experience has provided insight into factors that could affect survey accuracy and reliability. In addition, technological improvements in road inventories have made it possible to select observation sites that are more representative of the road segments in the State in a more cost effective manner. For these reasons, NHTSA is revising the Uniform Criteria so that future surveys will give States more accurate data to guide their occupant protection programs.