[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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