Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Seat Belt Assembly Anchorages

Topics:  Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

Raymond R. Posten
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
16 April 2018

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 73 (Monday, April 16, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16280-16281]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-07132]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. NHTSA-2012-0036]
RIN 2127-AL05


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Seat Belt Assembly 
Anchorages

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

ACTION: Notification of availability of technical reports.

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SUMMARY: This notification announces the availability of documents 
supplementing NHTSA's March 2015 Supplemental Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking (SNPRM) to amend Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 
(FMVSS) No. 210, ``Seat belt assembly anchorages.'' The SNPRM proposed 
an alternative test procedure that would maintain the current FMVSS No. 
210 body blocks and specify zones for the placement of the blocks at 
preload. The agency has conducted additional research since the 
publication of the SNPRM. This notification announces the docketing and 
availability of this research.

DATES: The documents referenced in this notification will be available 
in the docket as of April 16, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments to the docket number identified in 
the heading of this document 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, M-30, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room 
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern 
Time, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.

[[Page 16281]]

    Regardless of how you submit your comments, you should state the 
docket number of this document.
    You may call the Docket at 202-366-9826.
    Instructions: 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://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion 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 notice published 
on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Carla Rush, Office of 
Crashworthiness Standards, National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590 
(telephone 202-366-4583, fax 202-493-2739).
    Mr. John Piazza, Office of the Chief Counsel, National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, 
DC 20590 (telephone 202-366-2992, fax 202-366-3820).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    On March 30, 2012, the agency published in the Federal Register a 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) (77 FR 19155) that proposed to 
amend Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 210, ``Seat 
belt assembly anchorages,'' to replace the current pelvic body block 
and the upper torso body block with a new Force Application Device 
(FAD). The rationale provided for the proposal included the FAD's ease 
of use, that it is representative of the human form, and that it 
provides a consistent test configuration and load path to the seat belt 
assembly anchorages without affecting the stringency of the compliance 
test.
    The agency received a number of comments on the NPRM that raised 
issues concerning the feasibility of the FAD proposal. In light of 
those comments, NHTSA published a Supplemental Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking (SNPRM) on March 2, 2015 (80 FR 11148). The SNPRM proposed, 
as an alternative to the FAD proposed in the NPRM, to maintain the 
current FMVSS No. 210 body blocks and specify ``zones'' for the preload 
placement of the body blocks. In the SNPRM, the agency noted that it 
had initiated research to aid in the development of the zones bounding 
the initial placement for the current body blocks. This research has 
now been completed.
    The agency is docketing a variety of research reports. This 
research falls into three categories. The first category is additional 
research tests on passenger vehicles in order to evaluate the 
performance of the FAD in comparison to the body blocks in the same 
vehicle. The second category is research and testing performed to 
establish practical, repeatable, and validated zones for initial 
positioning (at preload) of the current FMVSS No. 210 body blocks 
(``Development of Positioning Zones for FMVSS No. 210 Body Blocks''). 
The third category is testing of the proposed FAD on buses with a gross 
vehicle weight rating of more than 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) 
(Report Nos. 207/210-MGA-2013-001 and 207/210-MGA-2013-002). The 
objective of this testing was to determine whether the proposed FAD 
affects the stringency of FMVSS No. 210 compliance tests on heavy duty 
vehicle seats and to assess how the FAD performs in these tests.

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.
    Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long. (49 CFR 553.21). 
We 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.
    Comments may also be submitted to the docket electronically by 
logging into http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions 
for submitting comments.
    Please note that pursuant to the Data Quality Act, in order for 
substantive data to be relied upon and used by the agency, it must meet 
the information quality standards set forth in the OMB and DOT Data 
Quality Act guidelines. Accordingly, we encourage you to consult the 
guidelines in preparing your comments. OMB's guidelines may be accessed 
at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/reproducible.html.

How can I be sure that my comments were received?

    If you wish DOT's Docket Management Facility 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, 
the Docket Management Facility 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.)

How can I read the comments submitted by other people?

    You may read the comments at DOT's Docket Management Facility at 
the address given above under ADDRESSES. The hours of the facility are 
indicated above in the same location. You may also see the comments on 
the internet. To read the comments on the internet, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets.

    Authority: delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8.

Raymond R. Posten,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
[FR Doc. 2018-07132 Filed 4-13-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-59-P