Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 89 / Friday, May 8, 1998 / Notices 25543

Herbert Tate—White Mountain Apache

Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation,

Arizona

Dennis Smith—Shoshone-Paiute Tribes

of the Duck Valley Reservation,

Nevada

Rebecca Torres—Alabama/Quassarte

Tribal Town of the Creek Nation of

Oklahoma, Oklahoma

James Garrigan—Red Lake Band of

Chippewa Indians of the Red Lake

Reservation, Minnesota

Kevin R. Alford—Eastern Band of

Cherokee Indians of North Carolina,

North Carolina

Tracy VanRite—Menominee Indian

Tribe of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

Henry Hoggatt—Chickasaw Nation,

Oklahoma

Sandra Shade—Gila River PimaMaricopa Indian Community of the

Gila River Indian Reservation of

Arizona, Arizona

Tim Longie, Sr.—Spirit Lake Tribe,

North Dakota

Lewis B. George—Catawba Indian

Nation, South Carolina

David McKinney—Muscogee (Creek)

Nation, Oklahoma

Louis Hood—Fort McDowell MohaveApache Indian Community of the Fort

McDowell Indian Reservation,

Arizona

Emil Tojola—Pueblo of Isleta, New

Mexico

Glenn Wasson—Lovelock Paiute Tribe

of the Lovelock Indian Colony,

Nevada

Frederick Murillo—Mesa Grande Band

of Diegueno Mission Indians of the

Mesa Grande Reservation, California

Mark Tibbetts—Eight Northern Indian

Pueblos Council, New Mexico

R.T. Eby—Cocopah Tribe or Arizona

Levi Valdez—Bureau of Indian Affairs,

Albuquerque Area Office, Northern

Pueblo Agency, New Mexico

Also, these meetings were attended by

members of various other tribes who

provided input into the revision of this

document.

Copies of the document will be

available May 15, 1998, and can be

obtained from the Federal Highway

Administration, Federal Lands Highway

Office, HFL–11, 400 Seventh Street,

SW., Washington, DC 20590.

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 315; 49 CFR 1.48.

Allen W. Burden,

Acting Federal Lands Highway Program

Administrator.

[FR Doc. 98–12269 Filed 5–7–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA–98–3774; Notice 1]

Program Plan for Evaluating the

Effectiveness of Existing Regulations,

1998–2002

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic

Safety Administration (NHTSA),

Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Request for comments.

SUMMARY: This notice announces the

publication by NHTSA of its Evaluation

Program Plan for 1998–2002. The report

describes the agency’s ongoing and

planned evaluations of its existing

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

(49 CFR Part 571) and its other safety

and consumer programs. It also

summarizes the results of completed

evaluations. The agency’s evaluation

program responds to Executive Order

12866, which provides for Governmentwide review of existing significant

Federal regulations. This notice solicits

public review and comment on the

evaluation plan. Comments received

will be used to improve the plan.

DATES: Comments must be received no

later than September 8, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Report: Interested people

may obtain copies of the reports free of

charge by sending a self-addressed

mailing label to Publications Ordering

and Distribution Services (NAD–51),

National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration, 400 Seventh Street, SW,

Washington, DC 20590.

Comments: All comments should

refer to the docket and notice number of

this notice and be submitted to: Docket

Section, Room 5109, Nassif Building,

400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington DC

20590. [Docket hours, 9:30 a.m.–4:00

p.m., Monday through Friday.]

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Charles J. Kahane, Chief, Evaluation

Division, Plans and Policy, National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration,

Room 5208, 400 Seventh Street, SW,

Washington, DC 20590 (202–366–2560).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NHTSA

has rigorously evaluated its major

programs as a matter of policy since

1970. The evaluation of the

effectiveness of the Federal Motor

Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)

began in 1975. The Government

Performance and Results Act of 1993

and Executive Order 12866, ‘‘Regulatory

Planning and Review,’’ issued in

October 1993 (58 FR 51735), now oblige

all Federal agencies to evaluate their

existing programs and regulations.

Previously, Executive Order 12291,

issued in February 1981 (46 FR 13193),

also required reviews of existing

regulations. Even before 1981, however,

NHTSA was a leader among Federal

agencies in evaluating the effectiveness

of existing regulations and technologies.

There are large data bases of motor

vehicle crashes which can be analyzed

to find out what vehicle and traffic

safety programs work best.

This five-year plan presents and

discusses the programs, regulations,

technologies and related areas NHTSA

proposes to evaluate, and it summarizes

the findings of past evaluations.

Depending on scope, evaluations

typically take a year or substantially

more, counting initial planning,

contracting for support, OMB clearance

for surveys, internal reviews, approvals,

publication, review of public comments,

and the last phase of preparing

recommendations for subsequent agency

action.

Most of NHTSA’s crashworthiness

and several crash avoidance standards

have been evaluated at least once since

1975. A number of consumer-oriented

regulations, e.g., bumpers, theft

protection, fuel economy and NCAP

have also been evaluated. So have

promising safety technologies, such as

antilock brake systems, that were not

mandatory under Federal regulations.

The plan for the next five years includes

evaluations of new and existing vehicle

safety regulations, technologies and

consumer protection programs, plus the

completion of an assessment of the

highway safety program.

NHTSA welcomes public review of

the plan and invites the reviewers to

comment about the selection, priority,

and schedule of the regulations to be

evaluated. The agency is interested in

learning of any additional data that may

be useful in the evaluations. The plan

will be periodically updated in response

to public and agency needs, with a

complete revision scheduled every four

years. The most recent plan before this

one was published on June 10, 1994 (59

FR 30090).

If a commenter wishes to submit

certain information under a claim of

confidentiality, three copies of the

complete submission, including

purportedly confidential business

information, should be submitted to the

Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the street

address given above, and 7 copies from

which the purportedly confidential

information has been deleted should be

submitted to the Docket Section. A

request for confidentiality should be

accompanied by a cover letter setting

forth the information specified in the

agency’s confidential business
25544 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 89 / Friday, May 8, 1998 / Notices

information regulation. (49 CFR Part

512).

All comments received before the

close of business on the comment

closing date will be considered, and will

be available for examination in the

docket at the above address both before

and after that date. To the extent

possible, comments filed after the

closing date will also be considered.

The NHTSA will continue to file

relevant information as it becomes

available in the docket after the closing

date, and it is recommended that

interested people continue to examine

the docket for new material.

People desiring to be notified upon

receipt of their comments in the rules

docket should enclose a self-addressed,

stamped postcard in the envelope with

their comments. Upon receiving the

comments, the docket supervisor will

return the postcard by mail.

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30111, 30168;

delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.50 and

501.8.

William H. Walsh,

Associate Administrator for Plans and Policy.

[FR Doc. 98–12232 Filed 5–7–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–59–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration

Discretionary Grant To Support the

Demonstration and Evaluation of

Programs To Reduce the Incidence of

Illegal Passing of School Buses

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic

Safety Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Announcement of discretionary

grant agreement program to support the

demonstration and evaluation of

programs to reduce the incidence of

illegal passing of school buses.

SUMMARY: The National Highway Traffic

Safety Administration (NHTSA)

announces a discretionary grant

agreement program to support the

demonstration and evaluation of

programs to reduce the incidence of

illegal passing of school buses.

The goal of NHTSA’s school bus

safety program is to reduce school-busrelated fatalities and injuries. While the

number of fatalities and injuries related

to school bus crashes has been

consistently low for over a decade, the

number of motorists illegally passing

school buses is increasing, jeopardizing

the safety record of school

transportation. This cooperative

agreement program will support

development and implementation of

community-based demonstration

projects that have the potential to

substantially reduce the incidence of

illegal passing.

NHTSA anticipates funding up to four

demonstration projects for a minimum

demonstration period encompassing one

complete school year and a total period

of performance of no more than 15

months.

This notice solicits applications from

public and private, non-profit and forprofit organizations, state and local

governments and their agencies.

Interested applicants must submit an

application package as further described

in the Application Procedures section of

this notice. The applications will be

evaluated to determine the proposals

that will receive funding under this

announcement.

DATES: Applications must be received at

the office designated below on or before

3 pm June 10, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Applications must be

submitted to the National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration, Office of

Contracts and Procurement (NAD–30),

ATTN: Rose Watson, 400 7th Street,

SW., Room 5301, Washington, DC

20590. All applications submitted must

include a reference to NHTSA Grant

Agreement Program No. NTS–01–8–

05130.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

General administrative questions may

be directed to Rose Watson, Office of

Contracts and Procurement at (202)

366–9557. Programmatic questions

relating to this grant agreement program

should be directed to Diane Wigle,

Safety Countermeasures Division,

NHTSA, 400 7th Street, SW., (NTS–15),

Washington, DC 20590, by e-mail at

dwigle@nhtsa.dot.gov, or by phone at

(202) 366–4301. Interested applicants

are advised that no separate application

package exists beyond the contents of

this announcement.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

An estimated 23 million students ride

school buses twice daily every school

day to go to and from school. Their safe

travel is a top concern of Federal, State

and local governments, school districts,

school administrators, parents, and

citizens. To ensure their safety, NHTSA

established and currently enforces

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

governing the manufacture of buses to

be used to transport school children. In

addition, NHTSA’s Guideline #17

establishes minimum recommendations

for a pupil transportation safety

program, including the identification,

operation, and maintenance of buses

used for carrying students; training of

passengers, pedestrians, and bicycle

riders; and administration.

Even with school-bus-specific Federal

Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and

Guideline #17, some school bus safety

problems persist. One such problem is

the problem of motor vehicles illegally

passing school buses stopped to load/

unload students (also referred to as stoparm violations). Though it is illegal in

every state to pass a school bus stopped

to load or unload students, every state

faces the problem of citizens disobeying

the law.

In October 1997 the National School

Transportation Association conducted a

survey of state school transportation

directors. As part of that survey the

directors were asked to identify the

three biggest issues in their state for

school transportation. The problem of

illegal passing of school buses was

reported as one of their top safety

concerns.

The School Transportation

Management Section (STMS) of the

Florida Department of Education

recently documented the size of that

state’s illegal passing problem. It was

determined through a study conducted

by the University of South Florida for

STMS that on one day in May, 1995,

10,590 vehicles illegally passed stopped

school buses in 58 of Florida’s 67 school

districts (approximtaly 11,150 school

buses). During this same school year,

two of Florida’s public school children

were killed by motorists illegally

passing stopped school buses. However,

the statewide citation totals for the

illegal passing of stopped school buses

accounted for only 13,178 of the over 17

million citations issued for all traffic

violations in the state from 1988 to

1992.

A one-day study conducted

September 24, 1996 revealed that 3,394

Virginia motorists illegally passed a

stopped school bus on that day. Of that

total, 187 involved passing the bus on

the side that students enter and exit. A

total of 119 out of 131 school divisions

in the state participated in the study.

Though Virginia and Florida transport a

similar number of students on a

comparable number of school buses,

Virginia school buses only travel half

the miles Florida school buses travel in

a year.

The Evaluation Unit within the

Division of Traffic Safety of the Illinois

Department of Transportation

conducted a probability-based sample

survey of 250 school buses to arrive at

an estimate of the total number of stoparm violations of school buses in

Illinois. Drivers of the 250 buses were

asked to record stop-arm violations