[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 1, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 31387-31389]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-15523]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Part 571
[Docket No. NHTSA-2009-0108]
Vehicle Safety Rulemaking and Research Priority Plan 2009-2011
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The purpose of this request for comments is to solicit and
acquire public comment on the NHTSA's ``Vehicle Safety Rulemaking and
Research Priority Plan 2009-2011.'' The plan is not an exhaustive list.
Only programs and projects that are priorities or will take significant
agency resources are listed. Furthermore, NHTSA's enforcement, data
collection, and analysis programs--vital elements in achieving NHTSA's
goals--have their own set of priorities that are not listed here. Each
of these programs supports NHTSA's rulemaking and research priorities
by providing necessary safety data, economic analysis, expertise on
test procedures, and technical issues gleaned from enforcement
experience. The plan is an internal management tool as well as a means
to communicate to the public NHTSA's highest priorities to meet the
Nation's motor vehicle safety challenges. Among them are programs and
projects involving rollover crashes, children (both inside as well as
just near vehicles), motorcoaches and fuel economy that must meet
Congressional mandates or Secretarial commitments. NHTSA is also
currently in the process of developing a longer-term motor vehicle
safety strategic plan that would encompass the period 2012 to 2020.,
and will be announced in a separate Federal Register notice.
DATES: Comments must be received no later than August 31, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by Docket No. NHTSA-
2009-0108] by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC between 9 a.m. and
5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Telephone:
1-800-647-5527.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and
docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without
change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading below.
Privacy Act: 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://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the
online instructions, or visit Docket Management Facility at the street
address listed above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Joseph Carra, Director of
Strategic Planning and Integration, National
[[Page 31388]]
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Room W48-318, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: 202-366-0361. E-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
Motor vehicle crashes killed more than 41,000 people and injured
nearly 2.5 million others in more than 6 million police-reported
crashes in 2007. In addition to the terrible personal toll, these
crashes make a huge economic impact on our society with an estimated
annual cost of $230 billion,\1\ an average of $750 for every person in
the United States.
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\1\ These estimates are in year 2000 dollars.
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Motor vehicle crashes can be viewed through several different
perspectives:
Vehicle type;
Crashworthiness;
Crash avoidance;
Crash partners;
Body region injured; and
Societal costs.
Passenger vehicles still account for the majority of fatalities
(70% or 28,933 fatalities), but also account for 92 percent of the
vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
From the crashworthiness perspective, NHTSA looks at occupant
fatalities or crash types by what part of the vehicle was struck first.
Typically for passenger vehicles the initial impact point in fatal
crashes would be frontal in 55 percent of fatalities, side impacts in
28 percent, non-collision (rollovers) in 8 percent, rear impacts in 5
percent, and others in 4 percent. However, rollovers can be examined as
the initial impact, or as any event in the crash. If rollovers are
examined as any event in the crash, almost 10,200 fatalities occur per
year in rollovers, or about one-third of the passenger vehicle total.
From the crash avoidance perspective, NHTSA looks at types of
crashes that might be mitigated by new technologies. Based on the
General Estimates System (GES) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting
System (FARS), four types of crashes total 85 percent of all crashes.
These include Run-Off-Road (23%), Rear-End (28%), Lane Change (9%), and
Crossing Path (25%). Those same four types of crashes also equal 75
percent of all road fatalities. These include Run-Off-Road (41%), Rear-
End (5%), Lane Change (4%), and Crossing Path (14%).
The fourth perspective of looking at motor vehicle crashes is crash
type with respect to what the vehicle impacted, if anything. For both
passenger cars and light trucks, frontal crashes with other motor
vehicles account for the highest percentage of crash fatalities, 32
percent and 37 percent respectively. For passenger cars, side impacts
with other motor vehicles and impact with fixed objects both account
for 18 percent of fatalities. In fatal crashes involving light trucks,
non-collisions (rollovers) remain an issue, accounting for 23 percent
of crash fatalities.
A fifth and a sixth perspectives are those of body region injured
and societal costs. Brain injuries and ankle and knee injuries that
have long-term disability associated with them have very high societal
costs.
NHTSA looks at crashes from all these different perspectives in
determining the priorities for the agency. Countermeasures affect
different types of crashes in different ways and have to be examined
individually and compared to the applicable target population.
Programs and projects that warrant priority consideration fall into
the following four categories: (1) large safety benefits; (2)
vulnerable populations; (3) high-occupancy vehicles; and (4) other
considerations
Programs and projects that are in Category 1, large benefits, have
the potential for large safety benefits based upon factors such as:
The size of the target population;
The effectiveness of countermeasures and their potential
to save lives and prevent injuries;
The availability and practicability of these
countermeasures; and
The potential that countermeasures could be developed in
the future that could be reasonably effective against a large target
population.
It should be noted that some projects require additional research
before specific countermeasures and their benefits can be identified
and therefore the priority designation is based on the agency's
judgment of potential safety impacts.
Programs and projects in Category 2, vulnerable populations, affect
children, older people, the vision-impaired, or other populations that
are considered vulnerable.
Category 3, high-occupancy vehicles, involves buses or motorcoaches
and other high-occupancy vehicles.
Category 4, other considerations, includes priority projects that
may not be captured in the other categories, but either reduce the
impact of motor vehicles on energy security or address other specific
items.
The plan also includes a list of other significant programs and
projects that the agency believes it will work on in the 2009-2011
timeframe. This area is fluid, because the agency receives petitions
that require action, Congress may request that the agency address other
areas, the Administration may set additional and/or different
priorities, or some event may influence NHTSA's priority agenda.
Some programs and projects described in the plan require additional
research before any rulemaking action can be taken. These programs may
not be priorities now because NHTSA is not confident that an effective
countermeasure can be found. However, with research going on, there is
the possibility that countermeasures may be discovered that have the
significant death and injury reduction benefits.
Since these are expected to consume a significant portion of the
agency's rulemaking resources, they affect the schedules of the
agency's other priorities listed in this plan. The concept of this
plan, in terms of timing, is a little different than the 5-year
priority plans that the agency has issued in the past. This plan lists
the programs and projects the agency anticipates working on even though
there may not be a rulemaking planned to be issued by 2011, and in
several cases, the agency doesn't anticipate that the research will be
done by the end of 2011. Thus, in some cases the next step would be an
agency decision in 2012 or 2013.
The projects listed in the plan have been divided into the
following program areas: Light-vehicle crash avoidance and mitigation
advanced technologies, motorcycles, rollovers, front-impact occupant
protection, side-impact occupant protection, rear-seat occupant
protection, children, older people, global technical regulations
(international harmonization), heavy vehicles, CAFE, and others (a
catchall category for projects that don't fit in the listed program
areas).
Crash avoidance projects and programs are listed first because
their focus is on the first opportunity to save lives and reduce
injuries by preventing crashes in the first place. In addition they
serve to reduce property damage and traffic congestion that are the
inevitable result of most crashes.
NHTSA seeks public review and comment on the planning document.
Comments received will be evaluated and incorporated, as appropriate,
into the planned agency activities. Interested persons may obtain a
copy of the plan, ``Vehicle Safety Rulemaking and Research Priority
Plan 2009-2011,'' by downloading a copy of the document. To download a
copy of the document, go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the
online instructions, or visit Docket Management Facility at the street
address listed above under
[[Page 31389]]
ADDRESSES and reference Docket No. NHTSA-2009-0108.
II. Submission of Comments
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 Docket
number of this document in your comments. Please submit two copies of
your comments, including attachments, to Docket Management at the
address given above under ADDRESSES. Comments may also be submitted to
the docket electronically by logging onto http://www.regulations.gov.
Click on ``How to Use This Site'' and then ``User Tips'' 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 a copy from which you have deleted the claimed confidential
business information to the docket. 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?
We 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, we will also consider
comments that Docket Management receives after that date. If a comment
is received too late for us to consider it in developing a final plan,
we will consider that comment as an informal suggestion for future
revisions of the plan.
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 http://www.regulations.gov.
2. On that page, in the field marked ``search,'' type in the docket
number provided at the top of this document.
3. The next page will contain results for that docket number; it
may help you to sort by ``Date Posted: Oldest to Recent.''
4. On the results page, click on the desired comments. You may
download the comments. However, since the comments are imaged
documents, instead of word processing documents, the downloaded
comments may not be word searchable.
Please note that even after the comment closing date, we will
continue to file relevant information in the Docket as it becomes
available. Accordingly, we recommend 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://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30111, 30117, 30168; delegation of
authority at 49 CFR 1.50 and 501.8.
Issued on: June 25, 2009.
Ronald L. Medford,
Senior Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety.
[FR Doc. E9-15523 Filed 6-30-09; 8:45 am]
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