[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 10, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11476-11477]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-5352]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA 02-13571]


Motor Vehicle Safety: Reimbursement Prior to Recall

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Request for public comment on a revision to an approved 
collection of information.

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[[Page 11477]]

SUMMARY: 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 October 16, 2002 (67 FR 63960).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 9, 2004.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: George Person at the National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Defects Investigation, NVS-
215, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Room 6240, Washington, DC 20590, phone 
202-366-5210.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Defect and Noncompliance Notification.
    OMB Number: 2127-0004.
    Type of Request: Revision of currently approved collection.
    Abstract: On October 17, 2002, NHTSA published a Final Rule (67 FR 
64049) implementing section 6(b) of the Transportation Recall 
Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act. Under this 
rule, motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment manufacturers are 
required to include, in their programs to remedy a safety-related 
defect or a noncompliance with a Federal motor vehicle safety standard 
(safety recall), a plan for reimbursing owners for the cost of a remedy 
incurred within a reasonable time before the manufacturer's 
notification of the defect or noncompliance, and to notify owners 
affected by the safety recall of their eligibility for reimbursement. 
The rule allows manufacturers to submit general reimbursement plans 
that may be incorporated into defect and noncompliance information 
reports submitted to NHTSA pursuant to 49 CFR part 573 (part 573 
reports) by reference rather than providing detailed plans to NHTSA for 
each safety recall. Specific information regarding a particular safety 
recall, such as the beginning and ending dates for the reimbursement 
period, must be submitted for each safety recall as part of the 
manufacturer's part 573 report. This revision adds the burden of 
providing this information to the currently approved burden of 15,844 
hours for providing all other information about the defect or 
noncompliance required by 49 CFR part 573.
    Affected Public: All manufacturers of motor vehicles and motor 
vehicle equipment that conduct safety recall campaigns would be 
required to comply with the reporting requirements. Based on recent 
history, we estimate that fewer than 500 safety recall campaigns will 
be conducted annually by no more than 170 different manufacturers.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: In order to provide the required 
information, manufacturers that conduct recalls must prepare a 
reimbursement plan and submit it to NHTSA. Ordinarily, we expect that 
this will consist of a general plan and supplemental information 
specific to each recall. We estimate that preparing the general plan 
would require 8 hours. Further, we estimate that no more than one hour 
would be required to include the additional information about a 
particular recall into individual Part 573 Reports. Since there are 
estimated to be 170 manufacturers that will submit 573 Reports annually 
and since there are estimated to be 500 recalls annually, the annual 
burden hours required to submit the plan would be 1,860 hours 
((8x170)+(1x500)). Also, there will be additional burden associated 
with the third party information included in the notification letter 
sent to owners, since a sentence or two advising the owners of the 
possibility that they may be eligible for reimbursement must be added 
to the notification letter. We estimate that less than one hour per 
recall will be necessary or 500 hours (500x1) to provide this 
information annually. The total additional annual burden hours for this 
revision to the information collection is therefore 2,360 hours.

ADDRESSES: Send comments, within 30 days, to the Office of Information 
and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th 
Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention NHTSA Desk Officer.
    Comments Are Invited On: Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the Department, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; the accuracy of the Department's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed information collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility 
and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    A comment to OMB is most effective if OMB receives it within 30 
days of publication.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2004.
Kenneth N. Weinstein,
Associate Administrator for Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 04-5352 Filed 3-9-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P