[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10273-10274]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-3666]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION


Petition Requesting Performance Standard for Bicycle Handlebars

AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Commission has received a petition (HP 01-1) requesting 
that the Commission issue a performance standard for bicycle handlebars 
regarding energy dissipation and distribution during impact. The 
Commission solicits written comments concerning the petition.

DATES: The Office of the Secretary must receive comments on the 
petition by April 16, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the petition, preferably in five copies, should 
be mailed to the Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety 
Commission, Washington, DC 20207, telephone (301) 504-0800, or 
delivered to the Office of the Secretary, Room 501, 4330 East-West 
Highway, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Comments may also be filed by 
telefacsimile to (301) 504-0127 or by email to [email protected]. 
Comments should be captioned ``Petition HP 01-1, Petition for Bicycle 
Handlebar Performance Standard.'' A copy of the petition is available 
for inspection at the Commission's Public Reading Room, Room 419, 4330 
East-West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rockelle Hammond, Office of the 
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, D.C. 20207; 
telephone (301) 504-0800, ext. 1232.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission has received correspondence 
from Flaura Koplin Winston, MD. Ph.D., Director, The Interdisciplinary 
Pediatric Injury Control Research Center, Children's Hospital of 
Philadelphia, requesting that the Commission issue a rule prescribing 
performance standards for bicycle

[[Page 10274]]

handlebars regarding energy dissipation and distribution during impact. 
The petitioner asserts that bicycle handlebars that cannot satisfy such 
criteria pose a serious risk of pancreatic, intestinal, renal, liver, 
and splenic injuries, particularly to young children. She argues that 
such serious injuries occur in the setting of minor incidents--falls 
from bicycles not involving motor vehicle crashes--and that the serious 
nature of the injuries suggests that the cause of the injury is the 
bicycle itself. She further asserts that the bicycle handlebars act as 
blunt spears and cause the injuries on impact.
    The petitioner maintains that handlebars can be designed that will 
dissipate the impact energy and spread the forces over a larger surface 
area so that forces transmitted by the end of the handlebar to the 
abdominal organs during impact are reduced to below known injury 
tolerance levels. The petitioner bases her conclusions on several 
studies of serious injury incidents to child bicyclists spanning 30+ 
years.
    The Commission is docketing the correspondence as a petition under 
provisions of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (``FHSA''), 15 
U.S.C. 1261-1278. Handlebars are addressed in Sec. 1512.6 of the 
existing Commission standard for bicycles at 16 CFR Part 1512, that was 
promulgated under authority of the FHSA. The current version of 
Sec. 1512.6 does not specifically address the risk of injury noted in 
the petition.
    Interested parties may obtain a copy of the petition by writing or 
calling the Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety 
Commission, Washington, DC 20207; telephone (301) 504-0800. A copy of 
the petition is also available for inspection from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, in the Commission's Public Reading Room, Room 
419, 4330 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland.

    Dated: February 8, 2001.
Sadye E. Dunn,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 01-3666 Filed 2-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P