[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 12, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 2105-2108]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-548]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Parts 571, 572 and 598

[Docket No. NHTSA-2004-17694; NHTSA-2004-18864]
RIN 2127-AJ10; 2127-AI89


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Side Impact Protection; 
Anthropomorphic Test Devices; ES-2re Side Impact Crash Test Dummy

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

ACTION: Reopening of comment periods; request for comment on addendum 
to initial regulatory flexibility analysis.

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SUMMARY: This document reopens the comment period on a notice of 
proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend Federal Motor Vehicle Safety 
Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, ``Side Impact Protection,'' to add a dynamic 
pole test to the standard, and on an NPRM on adding specifications and 
qualification requirements for a new mid-size adult male crash test 
dummy for use in the pole test. The agency is taking this action in 
response to a petition from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers 
requesting additional time to submit comments. The agency is reopening 
the comment period for 90 days. This document also informs readers that 
the agency will be placing in the docket an addendum to an initial 
regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA) relating to the proposed 
addition of the dynamic pole test to FMVSS No. 214. Comments are 
requested on the addendum.

DATES: Comments to docket numbers NHTSA-2004-17694 published May 17, 
2004 (69 FR 27990), and NHTSA-2004-18864 published September 15, 2004 
(69 FR 55550), and on the addendum to the IRFA (Docket No. 17694), must 
be received by April 12, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments (identified by the DOT DMS Docket 
Number) by any of the following methods:
    Web Site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
    Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590-001. Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level 
of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington,

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DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
Holidays.
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number or Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for the 
rulemaking to which you are commenting. For detailed instructions on 
submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking 
process, see the Public Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section of this document. Note that all comments received 
will be posted without change to http://dms.dot.gov, including any 
personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion 
under the Public Participation heading.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room PL-
401 on the plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW, 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal Holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. William Fan, NHTSA Office of 
Crashworthiness Standards (202) 366-4922), or Deirdre Fujita, NHTSA 
Office of Chief Counsel (telephone (202) 366-2992; fax (202) 366-3820). 
Both of these officials may be reached at 400 Seventh St., SW., 
Washington, DC 20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In May 2004, NHTSA published a notice of 
proposed rulemaking that proposed to upgrade FMVSS No. 214, ``Side 
Impact Protection,'' by requiring that all passenger vehicles with a 
gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) or less 
protect front seat occupants against head, thoracic, abdominal and 
pelvic injuries in a vehicle-to-pole test simulating a vehicle crashing 
sideways into narrow fixed objects like telephone poles and trees (69 
FR 27990, May 17, 2004; Docket 2004-17694). The NPRM proposed that 
compliance with the pole test would be determined in tests using a new, 
second-generation test dummy representing mid-size adult males (the 
``ES-2re'' crash test dummy) and a new test dummy representing small 
adult females (the ``SID-IIsFRG'' test dummy). The NPRM also proposed 
using the new dummies in the standard's existing vehicle-to-vehicle 
test that uses a moving deformable barrier (MDB) to simulate a moving 
vehicle being struck in the side by another moving vehicle. NHTSA 
provided a 150-day comment period for the proposal, which closed 
October 14, 2004.
    Publication of NPRMs to add specifications and qualification 
requirements for the ES-2re and SID-IIsFRG crash test dummies to 49 CFR 
Part 572 (NHTSA's regulation on anthropomorphic test devices) followed 
the FMVSS No. 214 proposal. A proposal for the ES-2re was published 
September 15, 2004 (69 FR 55550; Docket No. 18864). The comment period 
for that NPRM closed November 15, 2004. An NPRM proposing 
specifications and qualification requirements for the SID-IIsFRG test 
dummy was published on December 8, 2004 (69 FR 70947; Docket No. 
18865). A 90-day comment period was provided.

Petition

    The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Alliance) petitioned the 
agency to re-open the comment period for the FMVSS No. 214 NPRM for at 
least an additional eight months. The Alliance believed that the ES-2re 
and SID-IIsFRG test dummies were not available in sufficient quantities 
for member companies to assess the proposed pole test procedures. The 
Alliance indicated that dummy manufacturers were not able to supply the 
test dummies in response to manufacturers' demand. The petitioner 
stated that eight months is needed to provide sufficient time for 
Alliance members to complete dummy component tests (the petitioner 
estimated that three to four months is needed for this); to undertake 
vehicle tests (the petitioner suggested this would take another three 
to four months); and to analyze data and draft their comments 
(petitioner stated those steps would take another one to two months).
    The Alliance also petitioned to extend the comment period for the 
ES-2re NPRM for eight months. The petitioner stated that it needs the 
time to facilitate a comprehensive technical evaluation of the dummy 
and perform fleet testing, and that the eight months would align the 
comment closing date with that requested by the Alliance for the FMVSS 
No. 214 NPRM. The petitioner believed that the 150-day comment period 
provided for the May 2004 FMVSS No. 214 NPRM contrasts with a nine-
month comment period that NHTSA provided in 1988 when the agency 
proposed to adopt the MDB test into FMVSS No. 214.

Agency Decision

    The agency is reopening the comment periods for the FMVSS No. 214 
and the ES-2re NPRMs for 90 days. The 90 day period coincides with the 
comment period that the agency has provided for the SID-IIsFRG NPRM. We 
note that the ES-2re and SID-IIsFRG dummies were available following 
publication of the FMVSS No. 214 NPRM in May 2004 and that the 150 day 
comment period provided ample time for manufacturers to obtain and 
begin evaluating the test dummies and to perform fleet assessments. 
However, vehicle manufacturers did not know the calibration procedures 
and values that the agency was considering for the dummies' performance 
requirements until publication of the Part 572 NPRMs in September (ES-
2re) and December 2004 (SID-IIsFRG). Reopening the comment period gives 
manufacturers time to assess the dummies' performance and to conduct 
fleet testing using the calibrated dummies.
    NHTSA believes that a 90 day extension is sufficient and that 
providing 8 months is unwarranted. The Alliance stated that 
manufacturers need three to four months to do ``component testing'' of 
the dummies. We believe that component testing can be done in a matter 
of days or weeks rather than months. Also, calibration procedures were 
published for the ES-2re dummy in September and for the SID-IIsFRG in 
early December. We also estimate that six weeks is sufficient for 
conducting vehicle tests and for evaluating the data, based on the 
agency's experience with testing vehicles under NHTSA's consumer 
information New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). We further estimate that 
drafting and submitting comments on this priority rulemaking can be 
done in less than a month. All told, this period amounts to not more 
than 3 months. A longer period would unnecessarily delay key decisions 
by NHTSA about the FMVSS No. 214 rulemaking and would delay the 
potential societal benefits associated with a final rule.
    It is noted that the 90 day period does not even include the period 
that has passed since the closing dates of the comment periods for the 
FMVSS No. 214 and ES-2re NPRMs (October 14, 2004 and November 15, 2005, 
respectively). From those dates until today, manufacturers could have 
been and presumably were working on dummy and vehicle assessment. Thus, 
as a practicable matter, more than 90 days has been provided. It is 
further noted that the agency will consider late comments to the extent 
possible.

[[Page 2107]]

    The 8-month period that the Alliance requested is too long. The 
petitioner has not explained how the manufacturers have been using the 
150 day comment period of the FMVSS No. 214 NPRM to respond to the 
proposal. Information obtained by NHTSA from the two dummy 
manufacturers indicate that they were able to fill orders of the SID-
IIsFRG and ES-2re dummies and of the conversion kits (converting a SID-
IIs to the SID-IIsFRG by the addition of the floating rib guide 
modifications and an ES-2 to an ES-2re by addition of the rib 
extensions) within a reasonable time. One manufacturer shipped full 
dummies or conversion kits within nine days on the average from receipt 
of order, while the other needed less than 8 weeks for full dummies and 
4 weeks for kits. The agency is not convinced that a good faith effort 
to obtain the test dummies went unheeded by the dummy manufacturers.
    We further disagree with the petitioner's view that an 8 month 
extension is supported by the agency's decision in 1988 to provide a 9 
month comment period for the NPRM on the MDB test. The comment period 
for that rulemaking was extraordinarily long because it was the first 
time that a full scale dynamic impact test had been proposed for FMVSS 
No. 214. In contrast, a pole test with an instrumented dummy, 
substantially similar to the test proposed in the May 2004 NPRM, is 
already an option being used in FMVSS No. 201, ``Occupant protection in 
interior impact,'' and manufacturers are thus familiar with the 
protocol. Also, the deformable barrier was a new test device with its 
own properties, and was much more complex than the rigid pole used in 
the pole test. In addition, there were three new test dummies under 
consideration in the MDB rulemaking to represent a 50th percentile 
adult male: General Motors supported the BioSID; the European community 
supported the EuroSID; and NHTSA supported the SID. The three dummies 
had different characteristics and new injury criteria, each of which 
had to be individually considered. In contrast, the May 2004 NPRM only 
proposes the ES-2re as the 50th percentile male test dummy used in the 
NPRM. Not only is this the sole test dummy proposed as the 
representative device for the mid-size male, all vehicle manufacturers 
were familiar with the dummy through use of the ES-2 in vehicle 
development and NCAP-type programs in Europe, Japan and Australia. In 
light of these facts, reopening the comment period for an additional 8 
months is unwarranted.
    Accordingly, the public comment closing dates for DOT Docket Nos. 
17694 and 18864 are reopened for 90 days as indicated in the DATES 
section of this document.

Addendum to Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

    NHTSA is preparing an addendum to the initial regulatory 
flexibility analysis (IRFA) that was contained in the Preliminary 
Economic Assessment (PEA) for the May 17, 2004 NPRM on FMVSS No. 214. 
The addendum will be placed in Docket No. 17694. (The PEA is the first 
entry in Docket No. 17694). The addendum to the IRFA discusses the 
economic impacts on small vehicle manufacturers, of which there are 
four. Comments are requested on the addendum to the IRFA. Comments 
should be submitted to Docket. No. 17694 within the comment period 
reopened by today's Federal Register document.

Public Participation

How Do I Prepare and Submit Comments?

    Your comments must be written and in English. To ensure that your 
comments are correctly filed in the Docket, please include the 
appropriate docket number in your comments.
    Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long. (49 CFR 553.21). 
NHTSA established this limit to encourage you to write your primary 
comments in a concise fashion. However, you may attach necessary 
additional documents to your comments. There is no limit on the length 
of the attachments.
    Please submit two copies of your comments, including the 
attachments, to Docket Management at the address given above under 
ADDRESSES.
    You may also submit your comments to the docket electronically by 
logging onto the Dockets Management System website at http://dms.dot.gov. Click on ``Help & Information'' or ``Help/Info'' to obtain 
instructions for filing the document electronically.

How Can I Be Sure That My Comments Were Received?

    If you wish Docket Management to notify you upon its receipt of 
your comments, enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard in the 
envelope containing your comments. Upon receiving your comments, Docket 
Management will return the postcard by mail.

How Do I Submit Confidential Business Information?

    If you wish to submit any information under a claim of 
confidentiality, you should submit three copies of your complete 
submission, including the information you claim to be confidential 
business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the address given 
above under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. In addition, you should 
submit two copies, from which you have deleted the claimed confidential 
business information, to Docket Management at the address given above 
under ADDRESSES. When you send a comment containing information claimed 
to be confidential business information, you should include a cover 
letter setting forth the information specified in our confidential 
business information regulation. (49 CFR Part 512.)

Will the Agency Consider Late Comments?

    NHTSA will consider all comments that Docket Management receives 
before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated 
above under DATES. To the extent possible, the agency will also 
consider comments that Docket Management receives after that date. If 
Docket Management receives a comment too late for the agency to 
consider it in developing a final rule (assuming that one is issued), 
the agency will consider that comment as an informal suggestion for 
future rulemaking action.

How Can I Read the Comments Submitted by Other People?

    You may read the comments received by Docket Management at the 
address given above under ADDRESSES. The hours of the Docket are 
indicated above in the same location.
    You may also see the comments on the Internet. To read the comments 
on the Internet, take the following steps:
    1. Go to the Docket Management System (DMS) Web page of the 
Department of Transportation (http://dms.dot.gov/).
    2. On that page, click on ``search.''
    3. On the next page (http://dms.dot.gov/search/), type in the five-
digit docket number shown at the beginning of this document. Example: 
If the docket number were ``NHTSA-2004-12345,'' you would type 
``12345.'' After typing the docket number, click on ``search.''
    4. On the next page, which contains docket summary information for 
the docket you selected, click on the desired comments. You may 
download the

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comments. Although the comments are imaged documents, instead of word 
processing documents, the ``pdf'' versions of the documents are word 
searchable.
    Please note that even after the comment closing date, NHTSA will 
continue to file relevant information in the Docket as it becomes 
available. Further, some people may submit late comments. Accordingly, 
the agency recommends that you periodically check the Docket for new 
material.
    Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments 
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit 
http://dms.dot.gov.

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117 and 30166; 
delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.50.

    Issued on January 5, 2005.
Stephen R. Kratzke,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
[FR Doc. 05-548 Filed 1-11-05; 8:45 am]
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