National Highway Traffic Safety Administration March 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document grants in full the American Honda Motor Co., Inc.'s (Honda) petition for exemption of the Honda Civic 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, Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard.

NHTSA is proposing to establish direct final rulemaking (DFR) procedures for use in adopting amendments to its regulations on which no adverse public comment is expected by the agency. Under these procedures, NHTSA would issue a direct final rule adopting amendments that become effective a number of days (specified in the rule) after the date of publication of the rule in the Federal Register, unless NHTSA receives written adverse comment(s) or written notice of intent to submit adverse comment(s) by the specified date. Adoption of these new procedures would expedite the promulgation of routine and noncontroversial rules by reducing the time and resources necessary to develop, review, clear and publish separate proposed and final rules. NHTSA would not use direct final rule procedures for complex or controversial issues.

This document proposes to amend Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 110 to make it clear that special trailer (ST) tires are permitted to be installed on new trailers with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kg (10,000 lbs.) or less. It also proposes to exclude these trailers from a vehicle testing requirement that a tire must be retained on its rim when subjected to a sudden loss of tire pressure when brought to a controlled stop from 97 km/h (60 mph). After careful review, the agency believes that these two revisions are appropriate and would not result in any degradation of motor vehicle safety.

Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from the public, it must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 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 is being forwarded to OMB for review and comments. A Federal Register notice (77 FR 11621) with a 60- day comment period soliciting comments on the proposed information collection for the agency's new consumer Vehicle-child restraint system (CRS) Fit program and consolidation of existing collection of vehicle safety information (OMB Control Number 2127-0629) was published on February 27, 2012. The February 2012 ``Request for comments'' notice described a new collection of information for which NHTSA intend to seek OMB approval concerning recommendations from vehicle manufacturers regarding child restraint systems (CRSs) that fit in their individual vehicles. Furthermore, NHTSA planned to combine the new information collection with an existing collection for obtaining vehicle information for consumer information purposes. The agency received comments from the public on the new and existing collection of information. However, since the agency has not published its final decision on the new consumer information program, it is not able at this time to address comments received from the public regarding the new provisions for the collection of information on vehicle-CRS matchups from vehicle manufacturers. Thus, this ``Correction'' notice now focuses on renewing the existing collection of vehicle safety information and only addresses comments received from that information collection. Comments pertaining to the new Vehicle-CRS Fit Program will be addressed at a later time in a new submission, when the agency publishes its final decision on the new program.

This document denies a petition for rulemaking submitted by Mr. Michael Schramm requesting that the agency initiate rulemaking to establish a Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) to prevent a vehicle from being steered into a rollover at any speed. Mr. Schramm has applied to patent a device he believes will enable vehicles to meet his requested standard. After review of Mr. Schramm's petition, we believe the petition lacks sufficient data to support proposing and promulgating a safety standard. Further, it might create conflicts with existing standard and consumer information metrics. Therefore, NHTSA is denying Mr. Schramm's petition.