National Highway Traffic Safety Administration May 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action establishes revised uniform procedures implementing State highway safety grant programs, as a result of enactment of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. It also reorganizes, streamlines and updates some grant requirements. This document is being issued as an interim final rule to provide timely guidance to States about the application procedures for highway safety grants starting in year 2017. The agency requests comments on the rule. The agency will publish a notice responding to any comments received and, if appropriate, will amend provisions of the regulation.

This document extends the comment period on planned guidelines for the safe deployment and operation of automated vehicles. The intent of the operational guidance is to encourage innovative and safe deployment of automated vehicle technologies. Written statements and supporting information submitted during the comment period will be considered with the same weight as oral comments and supporting information presented at the public meetings. The comment due date was May 9, 2016. Comments continue to come in and requests have been made to extend the period to provide comments on this important topic. This document grants that request and extends the comment due date for the planned Guidelines to May 31, 2016.

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 collection and the expected burden. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on March 21, 2016 (Federal Register/Vol. 81, No. 54/pp.15147- 15148).

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that model year (MY) 2012 Jeep Wrangler multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs) that were manufactured for sale in the Mexican market and not originally manufactured to comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS), are eligible for importation into the United States because 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 2012 Jeep Wrangler MPV) and they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.

This NPRM proposes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 217a, ``Anti-ejection glazing for bus portals,'' to drive the installation of advanced glazing in high-occupancy buses (generally, over-the-road buses (of any weight) and non-over-the-road buses with a gross vehicle weight rating greater than 11,793 kilograms (26,000 pounds). The new standard would specify impactor testing of glazing material. In the tests, a 26 kilogram (57 pound) impactor would be propelled from inside a test vehicle toward the window glazing at 21.6 kilometers/hour (13.4 miles per hour). The impactor and impact speed would simulate the loading from an average size unrestrained adult male impacting a window on the opposite side of a large bus in a rollover. Performance requirements would apply to side and rear windows, and to glass panels and windows on the roof to mitigate partial and complete ejection of passengers from these windows and to ensure that emergency exits remain operable after a rollover crash. NHTSA also proposes to limit the protrusions of emergency exit latches into emergency exit openings of windows to ensure they do not unduly hinder emergency egress. This NPRM is among the rulemakings issued pursuant to NHTSA's 2007 Approach to Motorcoach Safety and DOT's Departmental Motorcoach Safety Action Plan. In addition, to the extent warranted under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, establishing advanced glazing standards for the side and rear portals of the subject buses would fulfill a statutory provision of the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2012 (incorporated and passed as part of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act).

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that model year (MY) 2009 Mercedes-Benz G Class Long Wheelbase (LWB) (463 Chassis) multipurpose 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 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 2009 Mercedes-Benz G Class LWB MPV) and they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.