[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 82 (Friday, April 28, 2006)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 25130-25132]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-6423]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. NHTSA 2006-24390]


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

[[Page 25131]]


ACTION: Denial of petition for rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: This document denies a petition for rulemaking submitted by 
Mr. James E. Hofferberth asking the agency to take a variety of steps 
related to incorporating dummies representing three-year-old, six-year-
old and ten-year-old children and 95th percentile adult males into the 
agency's frontal crash test programs.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
    For Non-Legal Issues: Ms. Catherine Carneal, Office of 
Crashworthiness Standards, National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590, 
Telephone: (202) 366-1284, Facsimile: (202) 366-7002.
    For Legal Issues: Mr. Chris Calamita, Office of Chief Counsel, 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 400 Seventh Street, 
SW., Washington, DC 20590, Telephone: (202) 366-2992, Facsimile: (202) 
366-3820.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Summary of Petition

    On September 9, 2005, Mr. James E. Hofferberth submitted a petition 
for rulemaking asking the agency to require additional safety measures 
related to protection of child and large adult male occupants. He 
stated that the likelihood and severity of injuries to vehicle 
occupants is strongly dependent on their size, and noted that the 
agency's frontal crash test standard specifies test requirements using 
only 50th percentile adult male dummies and 5th percentile adult female 
dummies. The petitioner stated that dummies representing three-year-
old, six-year-old and ten-year-old children and 95th percentile adult 
males are in existence and should be incorporated into the agency's 
frontal crash test programs.
    More specifically, Mr. Hofferberth's petition made four requests. 
The first was that any motor vehicles certified for compliance with the 
crash test requirements of FMVSS No. 208, ``Occupant crash 
protection,'' also be required to ``have a permanent, prominently 
displayed: (a) Notice that specifies the occupant sizes for which the 
vehicle is not in compliance with the crash test performance 
requirements of FMVSS No. 208, and (b) warning that such persons, other 
than small children using a child restraint system certified for 
compliance with FMVSS No. 213, ``Child restraint systems,'' are not 
protected by FMVSS No. 208, ``Occupant crash protection,'' and may be 
exposed to a higher risk of injury and fatality when riding in the 
vehicle.'' Second, the petitioner requested an ``order that vehicles 
claimed by the manufacturer to be in compliance with the performance 
requirements of FMVSS No. 208 for occupant sizes other than fifth 
percentile adult female and fiftieth percentile adult male be 
incorporated in the compliance test program to verify the 
manufacturer's claim.'' Third, he asked ``that crash testing using 
anthropomorphic dummies representing three-year-old children, six-year-
old children, ten-year-old children, and ninety-fifth percentile adults 
be routinely included in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).'' 
Finally, the petitioner asked that the agency amend FMVSS No. 208 to 
add crash test requirements using dummies representing three-year-old 
children, six-year-old children, ten-year-old children, and ninety-
fifth percentile adults.
    Mr. Hofferberth did not submit any data in support of his petition.

Analysis and Decision

    We begin by noting that the protection of children in motor vehicle 
crashes is one of our agency's highest priorities. We have taken a 
number of actions in recent years to improve child safety, and have a 
number of ongoing actions.
    For example, on June 24, 2003, we published in the Federal Register 
(68 FR 37620) a final rule making a number of revisions in our safety 
standard for child restraint systems, including amendments for 
incorporating improved test dummies, updated procedures used to test 
child restraints, and an extension of the standard to apply it to child 
restraints recommended for use by children up to 65 pounds (30 
kilograms). Child restraints will be tested using the most advanced 
test dummies available today and tested to conditions representing 
current model vehicles.
    On August 31, 2005, we published in the Federal Register (70 FR 
51720) a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to further expand the 
applicability of our safety standard on child restraint systems to 
restraints recommended for children up to 80 pounds. That proposal 
would require booster seats and other restraints to meet performance 
criteria when tested with a crash test dummy representative of a 10-
year-old child.
    NHTSA has also been evaluating the merits of including child 
dummies in the NCAP program pursuant to the Transportation Recall 
Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act. Section 
14(b) of this Act directed the Secretary of Transportation to determine 
``whether to include child restraints in each vehicle crash tested 
under NCAP.'' Two notices have been published on the agency's efforts 
in this area: Notice of final decision on the NCAP programs for child 
safety, published in the Federal Register (70 FR 29815) on May 24, 
2005, and response to comments, notice of decision for NCAP, published 
in the Federal Register (70 FR 75536) on December 20, 2005. These 
documents discuss the agency's decision to maintain the current frontal 
impact test procedures while conducting the necessary research to 
evaluate if and how the program could be modified to include child 
dummies. Concurrently with that effort, the agency is conducting a 
special comprehensive review of the entire NCAP program, which is 
expected to be completed later in 2006.
    All of Mr. Hofferberth's various requests relate to incorporating 
additional dummies to the agency's frontal crash test programs. 
Implementation of any of his requests would require substantial agency 
resources. Extensive research and testing would be needed to support a 
rulemaking and/or develop a rating program which incorporates child 
and/or large size dummies. Among other things, the agency would need to 
thoroughly review equipment and test procedures for validity and 
reliability with respect to real-world collisions. NHTSA currently has 
an insufficient amount of data on child dummies in a FMVSS No. 208 
crash environment to conduct a thorough crash test analysis. Also, the 
agency has not conducted rulemaking to include the 95th percentile 
adult male dummy in the Code of Federal Regulations, nor conducted the 
research and testing that would be needed to add this dummy to NCAP or 
to propose to use it as part of the Federal motor vehicle safety 
standards.
    These same issues are also relevant to the petitioner's request 
relating to requiring manufacturers to provide labels as to whether a 
vehicle would pass the crash test requirements of FMVSS No. 208 with 
dummies other than those specified by the standard.\1\ To enable a 
determination to be made as to whether a vehicle would pass these 
requirements, the agency would need to conduct the necessary research 
and analyses to standardize test procedures, injury criteria, and 
performance limits for these dummies in these tests.
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    \1\ We note that the agency has not conducted an assessment as 
to its authority to issue this type of requirement, and it is 
unnecessary to do so in order to respond to this petition.
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    Finally, if the agency were to propose adding new test requirements 
to FMVSS

[[Page 25132]]

No. 208 or other requirements that manufacturers would be required to 
meet, it would also need to carefully assess costs and benefits.
    After carefully considering Mr. Hofferberth's petition, the agency 
has decided to deny it. NHTSA has limited resources, and, for the 
reasons discussed above, rulemaking to implement the petitioner's 
requests would require substantial agency resources. While the agency 
may in the future consider adding additional dummies to its frontal 
crash test and/or other programs, the petitioner did not provide any 
data or supporting documentation that convinced us that we should 
change our current priorities and devote additional resources in this 
area.
    In accordance with 49 CFR part 552, this completes the agency's 
review of the petition.


    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117 and 30162; 
delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.50.

    Issued on: April 24, 2006.
Stephen R. Kratzke,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
 [FR Doc. E6-6423 Filed 4-27-06; 8:45 am]
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