[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 59 (Wednesday, March 26, 2008)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15963-15964]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 08-1072]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 571

[Docket No. 2007-0048]
RIN 2127-AJ44, RIN 2127-AJ49


Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Child Restraint Systems; 
Anthropomorphic Test Devices

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

ACTION: Reopening of comment period.

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SUMMARY: This document reopens the comment period on a supplemental 
notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) to amend Federal Motor Vehicle 
Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 213, ``Child Restraint Systems.'' Among 
other things, the SNPRM proposed to specify procedures the agency would 
use to position a Hybrid III 10-year-old child dummy and a Hybrid III 
6-year-old child dummy in booster seats when conducting FMVSS No. 213 
compliance tests. Comments on the SNPRM were due March 24, 2008. The 
Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) petitioned NHTSA to 
extend the comment period by a minimum of 60 days to appropriately 
respond with comments to the notice. We have granted the request to 
extend the comment period and are reopening the comment period for 45 
days.

DATES: Comments must be received by May 12, 2008.

[[Page 15964]]


ADDRESSES: You may submit comments (identified by the Docket ID Number 
above) by any of the following methods:
    <bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
    <bullet> Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground 
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    <bullet> Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room 
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    <bullet> Fax: 202-493-2251.
    Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments and 
additional information on the rulemaking process, see the Submission of 
Comments heading of the SNPRM published January 23, 2008. 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 (65 FR 19477-78).
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the street 
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical issues, you may call Dr. 
Roger Saul, Office of Rulemaking (Telephone: 202-366-1740) (Fax: 202-
493-2990). For legal issues, you may call Ms. Deirdre Fujita, Office of 
Chief Counsel (Telephone: 202-366-2992) (Fax: 202-366-3820). You may 
send mail to these officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue, SE., West Building, Washington, DC 20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 23, 2008, NHTSA published an 
SNPRM that, among other things, proposed seating procedures for 
positioning the Hybrid III (HIII) 10-year-old child dummy and the HIII 
6-year-old child dummy in booster seats when the dummies are used in 
FMVSS No. 213 compliance tests (73 FR 3901; Docket No. 2007-0048). The 
SNPRM supplemented a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published on 
August 31, 2005 that proposed to expand the applicability of FMVSS No. 
213 to restraints recommended for children weighing up to 80 pounds, 
and require booster seats and other child restraints produced for older 
children to meet performance criteria when tested with the HIII 10-
year-old child test dummy (70 FR 51720; DMS Docket No. 21245).\1\ The 
SNPRM provided a 60-day comment period, which ended March 24, 2008.
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    \1\ The agency also issued an NPRM that proposed to adopt 
specifications and performance requirements for the HIII 10-year-old 
child test dummy into 49 CFR Part 572 (notice of proposed rulemaking 
published July 13, 2005, 70 FR 40281; Docket No. NHTSA 2004-2005-
21247).
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    On March 20, 2008, JPMA petitioned NHTSA to extend the comment 
period by a minimum of 60 days in order to provide more time to 
thoroughly evaluate the seating procedures proposed to position the 
HIII 10-year-old and 6-year-old child dummies in booster seats. JPMA 
noted that CRS manufacturers do not have immediate access to the HIII 
10-year-old child dummy, and with additional time will be able to 
obtain the HIII 10-year-old child dummy and gain familiarity with the 
seating procedures. JPMA believes that extending the comment period by 
a minimum of 60 days will provide enough time to complete ongoing 
testing and evaluation of the new seating procedures, which will in 
turn lead to more meaningful responses based on real experience and 
test data.

Agency Decision

    The agency is reopening the comment period for the January 23, 2008 
SNPRM for 45 days in order to balance the interest of receiving 
meaningful responses and relevant test data with the interest of 
completing the rulemaking as soon as possible. The JPMA petition 
indicated that CRS manufacturers are already involved in activities to 
test and evaluate the seating procedure. Because these efforts have 
already begun, we believe a 45-day comment period should provide 
commenters sufficient time to obtain the HIII 10-year-old child dummy, 
evaluate the seating procedures for the two child dummies, and gain 
experience using the test dummies in sled testing of booster seats. It 
is further noted that the agency will consider comments submitted after 
the 45-day period to the extent possible.

(Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117 and 30166; delegation 
of authority at 49 CFR 1.50.)

    Issued on March 21, 2008.
Roger A. Saul,
Director, Office of Crashworthiness Standards.
[FR Doc. 08-1072 Filed 3-21-08; 12:20 pm]
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