[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 26, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21492-21493]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-8264]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA 2005-20274; Notice 2]


Workhorse Custom Chassis, Grant of Petition for Decision of 
Inconsequential Noncompliance

    Workhorse Custom Chassis (Workhorse) has determined that certain 
incomplete motor home chassis it produced in 2000 through 2004 do not 
comply with S3.1.4.1 of 49 CFR 571.102, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety 
Standard (FMVSS) No. 102, ``Transmission shift lever sequence, starter 
interlock, and transmission braking effect.'' Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 
30118(d) and 30120(h), Workhorse has petitioned for a determination 
that this noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety and 
has filed an appropriate report pursuant to 49 CFR part 573, ``Defect 
and Noncompliance Reports.'' Notice of receipt of a petition was 
published, with a 30-day comment period, on March 2, 2005, in the 
Federal Register (70 FR 10164). NHTSA received no comments.
    Affected are a total of approximately 42,524 incomplete motor home 
chassis built between July 2000 and December 31, 2004. S3.1.4.1 of 
FMVSS No. 102 requires that

    If the transmission shift lever sequence includes a park 
position, identification of shift lever positions * * * shall be 
displayed in view of the driver whenever any of the following 
conditions exist: (a) The ignition is in a position where the 
transmission can be shifted. (b) The transmission is not in park.

    Workhorse described its noncompliance as follows:

    In these vehicles when the ignition key is in the ``OFF'' 
position, the selected gear position is not displayed. ``OFF'' is a 
position not displayed, but located between lock and run. The gear 
selector lever can be moved while the ignition switch is in ``OFF.''

Workhorse believes that this noncompliance is inconsequential to motor 
vehicle safety and that no corrective action is warranted. Workhorse 
stated that:

    [T]he vehicles will be in compliance with FMVSS No. 102 during 
normal ignition activation and vehicle operation. Workhorse believes 
that the purpose of the rule is to provide the driver with 
transmission position information for the vehicle conditions where 
such information can reduce the likelihood of shifting errors. This 
occurs primarily when the engine is running, and Workhorse's PRNDL 
is always visible when the engine is running.
    Should the shift lever be in any position other than park or 
neutral, the ignition will not start. * * * Should the Workhorse 
vehicle be in neutral at the time the ignition is turned to start, 
the display will immediately come on and be visible to the driver.
    There are a number of safeguards to preclude the driver from 
leaving the vehicle with the vehicle in a position other than in the 
park position. First, if the driver should attempt to remove the 
key, the driver will discover that the vehicle is not in park 
because the key may not be removed. * * * If the driver were to 
attempt to leave the vehicle without removing the key, the audible 
warning required by FMVSS No. 114 would immediately sound reminding 
the driver that the key is still in the vehicle.

    Workhorse stated that this situation is substantially the same as 
for two petitions which NHTSA granted, one from General Motors (58 FR 
33296, June 16, 1993) and the second from Nissan Motors (64 FR 38701, 
June 19, 1999). Workhorse said, ``In both of those cases, the PRNDL 
display would not be illuminated if the transmission was left in a 
position other than `park' when the ignition key was turned to `OFF.' 
''

[[Page 21493]]

    Workhorse stated that it has no customer complaints or accident 
reports related to the noncompliance.
    NHTSA agrees with Workhorse that the noncompliance is 
inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. As the agency noted in 
proposing the current version of the standard (49 FR 32409, August 25, 
1988), the purpose of the display requirement is to ``provide the 
driver with transmission position information for the vehicle 
conditions where such information can reduce the likelihood of shifting 
errors.'' In all but the rarest circumstances, the primary function of 
the transmission display is to inform the driver of gear selection and 
relative position of the gears while the engine is running. In this 
case, the selected gear position and PRNDL display are always visible 
when the engine is running. Therefore, as Workhorse stated, the 
vehicles will be in compliance with FMVSS No. 102 during normal 
ignition activation and vehicle operation.
    Workhorse is correct that the two petitions it cited, from Nissan 
and General Motors, were granted by NHTSA based on this rationale. The 
Workhorse vehicles at issue here comply with all other requirements of 
FMVSS No. 102. Workhorse has corrected the problem.
    In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA has decided that the 
petitioner has met its burden of persuasion that the noncompliance 
described is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. Accordingly, 
Workhorse's petition is granted and the petitioner is exempted from the 
obligation of providing notification of, and a remedy for, the 
noncompliance.

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120; delegations of authority at 
CFR 1.50 and 501.8.

    Issued on: April 20, 2005.
Ronald L. Medford,
Senior Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety.
[FR Doc. 05-8264 Filed 4-25-05; 8:45 am]
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