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[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 186 (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55201-55202]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-22330]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2008-0145, Notice 1]

NHTSA's Activities Under the United Nations Economic Commission 
for Europe 1998 Global Agreement: Pedestrian Safety

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

ACTION: Notice of activities under the 1998 Global Agreement and 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NHTSA is publishing this notice to inform the public that 
there is a vote scheduled to establish the Global Technical Regulation 
on Pedestrian Safety at the November 2008 session of the World Forum 
for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). In anticipation of 
the vote NHTSA is requesting comments to inform its decision for the 
vote. Publication of this information is in accordance with NHTSA's 
Statement of Policy regarding Agency Policy Goals and Public 
Participation in the Implementation of the 1998 Global Agreement on 
Global Technical Regulations.

DATES: Written comments may be submitted to this agency within 30 days 
of publication of this notice.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket No. NHTSA-
2008-0145, Notice 1] 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 20590-0001.
     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. Telephone: 1-800-647-
5527.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number for this proposed collection of information. 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) or you may visit http://DocketInfo.dot.gov.
    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: Mr. Ezana Wondimneh, Division Chief, 
International Policy and Harmonization (NVS-133), National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 
DC 20590; Phone (202) 366-0846, Fax (202) 493-2280.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pedestrian safety is a key focus worldwide. 
Data indicate that, annually: in the European Union about 8,000 
pedestrians and cyclists are killed and about 300,000 injured; in North 
America approximately 5,000 pedestrians are killed and 85,000 injured; 
in Japan approximately 3,300 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and 
27,000 seriously injured; and in South Korea around 3,600 pedestrians 
are killed and 90,000 injured.\1\
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    \1\ Further discussion of these statistics and data sources is 
available in the text of the GTR.
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    The U.S. participated in the International Harmonized Research 
Activities (IHRA) Pedestrian Safety Working Group (IHRA-PS-WG) as it 
began to investigate and analyze the latest pedestrian accident data 
from IHRA member countries in 2001 and continued on to prepare 
harmonized pedestrian-passenger vehicle test procedures. Following 
this, separate adult and child head form tests were presented to the 
World Forum for

[[Page 55202]]

Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) at the end of 2002. 
Initial leg form tests were proposed in 2004. Since then, the U.S. has 
been working with representatives from WP.29 and IHRA to refine these 
testing procedures for inclusion in the GTR.
    NHTSA has also participated in the pedestrian safety technical 
working group established under the GRSP since 2002. In March 2004, a 
formal proposal to develop a pedestrian safety GTR was adopted by the 
Executive Committee for the 1998 Agreement (AC.3) under the sponsorship 
of the European Commission. The working group is chaired by Japan.
    This GTR is expected to improve pedestrian safety by requiring 
vehicle hoods and bumpers to absorb energy more efficiently when 
impacted in a 40 kilometer per hour (km/h) vehicle-to-pedestrian 
impact. These incidents account for more than 75 percent of the 
pedestrian-injured accidents (AIS 1+) reported by IHRA/PS. Pedestrian 
fatalities in countries that implement the GTR could be reduced by 
between 1 and 5 percent depending on the contracting party's 
transportation environment. The GTR consists of two sets of performance 
criteria applying to: (a) The hood top and fenders; and (b) the front 
bumper. Test procedures have been developed using sub-system impacts 
for adult and child head protection and adult leg protection.
    The head impact requirements will ensure that hood tops and fenders 
provide head protection when struck by a pedestrian. In testing, the 
hood top and fenders would be impacted with a child headform and an 
adult headform at 35 km/h. The Head Injury Criterion (HIC) must not 
exceed 1,000 over one half of a child headform test area and must not 
exceed 1,000 over two thirds of the combined child and adult headform 
test areas. The HIC for the remaining areas must not exceed 1,700 for 
both headforms.
    The leg protection requirements for the front bumper would require 
bumpers to subject pedestrians to lower impact forces than result from 
most current designs. The testing required by this GTR specifies that 
the vehicle bumper is struck at 40 km/h with a legform that simulates 
the impact response of an adult's leg. Vehicles with a lower bumper 
height of less than 425 millimeters (mm) are tested with a lower 
legform test device, while vehicles with a lower bumper height of more 
than 500mm are tested with an upper legform test device. Vehicles with 
a lower bumper height between 425mm and 500mm are tested with either 
legform as chosen by the manufacturer. In the lower legform-to-bumper 
test, vehicles must meet limits on lateral knee bending angle, knee 
shearing displacement, and lateral tibia acceleration. In the upper 
legform to bumper test, limits are placed on the instantaneous sum of 
the impact forces with respect to time and the bending moment on the 
test. More detailed information on these test procedures was provided 
in previous notices and through the UN Web site as they were considered 
by WP.29.
    This GTR is expected to be considered for establishment by vote at 
the upcoming November 2008 session of WP.29/AC.3. Once a GTR is 
established through consensus voting at WP.29, Contracting Parties, 
while not obligated to automatically adopt the regulation, are 
obligated to initiate the process of rulemaking in their respective 
jurisdictions. If a GTR is established, it is the agency's policy to 
initiate domestic rulemaking to adopt its requirements, including a 
cost and benefit analysis specific to the U.S. This process provides 
further opportunity for the public to comment on our proposed 
regulation for consideration through the usual U.S. rulemaking process.
    In anticipation of the vote to establish a GTR for pedestrian 
safety, NHTSA is requesting comment from all interested parties. The 
draft regulation and associated documents can be found in the docket 
for this notice and on the UNECE Web site.\2\
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    \2\ ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2007/105

    Issued on: September 17, 2008.
Stephen R. Kratzke,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
 [FR Doc. E8-22330 Filed 9-23-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P
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