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

This document grants in full the Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) petition for an exemption of the CX-5 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 regarding motorcycles helmet labels 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 March 30, 2011 (76 FR 17746). The docket number is NHTSA-2011-0045. No comments were received.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), NHTSA plans to analyze the potential environmental impacts of the agency's rulemaking to implement the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010. The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act mandates a rulemaking to establish a standard requiring electric and hybrid vehicles to be equipped with a pedestrian alert sound system that would activate in certain vehicle operating conditions to aid visually-impaired and other pedestrians in detecting the presence, direction, location, and operation of those vehicles. Under NEPA, once an agency determines the purpose and need of the proposed federal action, it engages in scoping. This is the process by which the scope of the issues and the alternatives to be examined are determined. This notice initiates the scoping process by inviting comments from Federal, State, and local agencies, Indian Tribes, and the public to help identify the environmental issues and reasonable alternatives to be examined under NEPA. This notice also provides guidance for participating in the scoping process and additional information about the alternatives NHTSA expects to consider in its NEPA analysis.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are issuing a joint final rule establishing new requirements for the fuel economy and environment label that will be posted on the window sticker of all new automobiles sold in the U.S. The labeling requirements apply for model year 2013 and later vehicles with a voluntary manufacturer option for model year 2012. The labeling requirements apply to passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium duty passenger vehicles such as larger sport-utility vehicles and vans. The redesigned label provides expanded information to American consumers about new vehicle fuel economy and fuel consumption, greenhouse gas and smog-forming emissions, and projected fuel costs and savings, and also includes a smartphone interactive code that permits direct access to additional Web resources. Specific label designs are provided for gasoline, diesel, ethanol flexible fuel, compressed natural gas, electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This rulemaking is in response to provisions in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that imposed several new labeling requirements and new advanced-technology vehicles entering the market. NHTSA and EPA believe that these changes will help consumers to make more informed vehicle purchase decisions, particularly as the future automotive marketplace provides more diverse vehicle technologies from which consumers may choose. These new label requirements do not affect the methodologies that EPA uses to generate consumer fuel economy estimates, or the automaker compliance values for NHTSA's corporate average fuel economy and EPA's greenhouse gas emissions standards. This action also finalizes a number of technical corrections to EPA's light-duty greenhouse gas emission standards program.

This notice grants the petition of Terrafugia for a temporary exemption from certain FMVSS requirements for tire selection and rims for motor vehicles (FMVSS No. 110), electronic stability control (ESC) systems (FMVSS No. 126), glazing materials (FMVSS No. 205), and advanced air bag requirements (FMVSS No. 208). The basis for the exemption is that compliance with these requirements would cause substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that has tried in good faith to comply with the standard. This action follows our publication in the Federal Register of a document announcing receipt of Terrafugia's petition and soliciting public comments.

This final rule amends regulations concerning vehicle modifications which accommodate people with disabilities to update and expand a reference in an exemption relating to the Federal motor vehicle safety standard for side impact protection. The expanded exemption facilitates the mobility of drivers and passengers with disabilities.

This document requests comments on data about passenger motor vehicle thefts that occurred in calendar year (CY) 2009 including theft rates for existing passenger motor vehicle lines manufactured in model year (MY) 2009. The preliminary theft data indicate that the vehicle theft rate for CY/MY 2009 vehicles (1.33 thefts per thousand vehicles) decreased by 21.3 percent from the theft rate for CY/MY 2008 vehicles (1.69 thefts per thousand vehicles). Publication of these data fulfills NHTSA's statutory obligation to periodically obtain accurate and timely theft data, and publish the information for review and comment.

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 March 3, 2011 (76 FR 11848). No comments were received. This document describes the collection of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval. The collection of information described is the ``Consolidated Child Restraint System Registration, Labeling and Defect Notification.'' (OMB Control Number: 2127-0576)

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, 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 the collection of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval.

In accordance with the procedures in 49 CFR Part 555, Tesla Motors, Inc., has petitioned the agency for renewal of a temporary exemption from certain advanced air bag requirements of FMVSS No. 208. The basis for the application is that the petitioner avers that compliance would cause it substantial economic hardship and that it has tried in good faith to comply with the standard.\1\ This notice of receipt of an application for renewal of temporary exemptions is published in accordance with statutory and administrative provisions. NHTSA has made no judgment on the merits of the application.

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that 2007 Dodge Durango multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPV) manufactured for the Mexican market (Mexican market 2007 Dodge Durango MPV), 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 2007 Dodge Durango MPV,) and they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.

This document corrects or makes minor changes to some of the drawings incorporated by reference into NHTSA regulations by a final rule published on June 16, 2008, concerning a 50th percentile adult male side crash test dummy called the ``ES-2re'' test dummy. The corrections and adjustments to the drawings respond to requests from test dummy manufacturers First Technology Safety Systems (FTSS) and Denton ATD (Denton). This final rule also corrects dimensional errors in a figure which depicts the pendulum used in the neck qualification tests of several of the crash test dummies, including the Hybrid III and ES-2re test dummies.

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS class passenger cars manufactured prior to September 1, 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 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 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS class passenger cars manufactured prior to September 1, 2006,) and they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards. DATE: The closing date for comments on the petition is June 24, 2011.

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 regarding the Petitions for Exemption from the Theft Prevention Standard 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 4, 2011 (76 FR 6514). The agency received no comments.

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 September 3, 2010, at 75 FR 54217.

This final rule amends the Federal motor vehicle safety standard that specifies performance requirements for motorcycle helmets to reduce traumatic brain injury and other types of head injury. Some of the amendments will help to increase the benefits of that standard by making it easier for State and local law enforcement officials to enforce State laws requiring the use of helmets meeting that standard. Some motorcyclists use noncompliant helmets known as novelty helmets. These helmets are not certified to the agency's helmet standard and have been shown in testing to fail all or almost all of the safety performance requirements in that standard. Some novelty helmet users attempt to make their helmets appear to law enforcement agencies and the courts to be compliant by misleadingly attaching labels that have the appearance of legitimate ``DOT'' certification labels. This final rule revises the existing requirements for the ``DOT'' certification label and other labels and adds new requirements to make it more difficult to label novelty helmets misleadingly. The other amendments will aid NHTSA in enforcing the standard by setting reasonable tolerances for certain test conditions, devices and procedures. Specifically, this final rule sets a quasi-static load application rate for the helmet retention system; revises the impact attenuation test by specifying test velocity and tolerance limits and removing the drop height test specification; provides tolerances for the helmet conditioning specifications and drop assembly weights; and revises requirements related to size labeling and location of the DOT symbol.

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 soliciting public comment on the ICR, with a 60-day comment period was published on February 25, 2011, at 76 FR 10635.

In this technical amendment, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updates the address for submission, and the procedure to submit designation of target areas on high theft major parts of motor vehicles. E-mail is now included as a means to submit the target area designations. Under the Theft Prevention Standard, manufacturers of high theft passenger motor vehicle lines subject to parts marking, and manufacturers of replacement parts designed for high theft lines, must submit designation of target areas for identifying numbers to be marked on each major part and symbols to be marked on each major replacement part. This rulemaking makes no substantive changes to the Theft Prevention Standard.

This document denies, in part, the petitions for reconsideration of the December 4, 2007, final rule reorganizing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 (49 CFR 571.108). The petitions are denied only as they relate to subpart S6.6.3 (License Plate Holder) of the final rule.

The Secretary of Transportation announces the renewal of the National Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council to provide advice and recommendations regarding emergency medical services (EMS) matters to the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and through NHTSA to the Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services. The NHTSA's Office of EMS serves as sponsor of the Advisory Council for the Secretary. The purpose of this notice is to inform interested parties of the renewal of NEMSAC.

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 4, 2011 (76 FR 6513).

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 4, 2011 (76 FR 6515).