Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 247 / Wednesday, December 24, 2014 / Notices 77595 

Background 

The National Parks Air Tour 

Management Act of 2000 (the Act) was 

enacted on April 5, 2000, as Public Law 

106–181. The Act required the 

establishment of the advisory group 

within 1 year after its enactment. The 

NPOAG was established in March 2001. 

The advisory group is comprised of a 

balanced group of representatives of 

general aviation, commercial air tour 

operations, environmental concerns, 

and Native American tribes. The 

Administrator of the FAA and the 

Director of NPS (or their designees) 

serve as ex officio members of the 

group. Representatives of the 

Administrator and Director serve 

alternating 1-year terms as chairman of 

the advisory group. 

In accordance with the Act, the 

advisory group provides ‘‘advice, 

information, and recommendations to 

the Administrator and the Director- 

(1) On the implementation of this title 

[the Act] and the amendments made by 

this title; 

(2) On commonly accepted quiet 

aircraft technology for use in 

commercial air tour operations over a 

national park or tribal lands, which will 

receive preferential treatment in a given 

air tour management plan; 

(3) On other measures that might be 

taken to accommodate the interests of 

visitors to national parks; and 

(4) At the request of the Administrator 

and the Director, safety, environmental, 

and other issues related to commercial 

air tour operations over a national park 

or tribal lands.’’ 

Membership 

The NPOAG ARC is made up of one 

member representing general aviation, 

three members representing the 

commercial air tour industry, four 

members representing environmental 

concerns, and two members 

representing Native American interests. 

Current members of the NPOAG ARC 

are as follows: 

The current NPOAG consists of Heidi 

Williams representing general aviation; 

Alan Stephen, Mark Francis, and 

Matthew Zuccaro representing 

commercial air tour operators; Michael 

Sutton and Dick Hingson representing 

environmental interests with two open 

seats; and Rory Majenty and Martin 

Begaye representing Native American 

interests. Mr. Majenty’s 3-year 

membership expires on April 2, 2015. 

Selection 

In order to retain balance within the 

NPOAG ARC, the FAA and NPS are 

seeking candidates interested in filling 

the two current open seats and Mr. 

Majenty’s soon to be expiring seat. The 

two open seats to be filled will represent 

environmental concerns and the one 

upcoming opening will represent Native 

American interests. The FAA and NPS 

invite persons interested in representing 

environmental concerns or Native 

American interests on the ARC to 

contact Mr. Keith Lusk (contact 

information is written above in FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). 

Requests to serve on the ARC must be 

made to Mr. Lusk in writing and 

postmarked or emailed on or before 

January 30, 2015. The request should 

indicate whether or not you are a 

member of an association or group 

related to environmental issues or a 

Native American tribe or have another 

affiliation with issues relating to aircraft 

flights over national parks. The request 

should also state what expertise you 

would bring to the NPOAG ARC as 

related to these issues and concerns. 

The term of service for NPOAG ARC 

members is 3 years. Current members 

may re-apply for another term. 

On June 18, 2010, President Obama 

signed a Presidential Memorandum 

directing agencies in the Executive 

Branch not to appoint or re-appoint 

federally registered lobbyists to advisory 

committees and other boards and 

commissions. Therefore, before 

appointing an applicant to serve on the 

NPOAG, the FAA and NPS will require 

the prospective candidate to certify that 

they are not a federally registered 

lobbyist. 

Issued in Hawthorne, CA on December 16, 

2014. 

Keith Lusk, 

Program Manager, Special Programs Staff, 

Western-Pacific Region. 

[FR Doc. 2014–30263 Filed 12–23–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Highway Administration 

[Docket No. FHWA–2014–0039] 

ET-Plus Guardrail End Terminal 

AGENCY: Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice; Request for Information. 

SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is 

to request data and information 

regarding the ET-Plus guardrail end 

terminal (ET-Plus) manufactured by 

Trinity Industries, Inc. (Trinity). In 

2005, the FHWA determined that ETPlus guardrail end terminal met the 

relevant crash test criteria and therefore 

was eligible for Federal-aid highway 

funding. This fall, a jury issued a verdict 

that Trinity made a false or fraudulent 

claim to FHWA when it sought the 

eligibility determination for the ET-Plus. 

Additionally, a number of parties have 

raised concerns about the in-service 

performance of the ET-Plus and the 

potential variability in the dimensions 

of installed units of the ET-Plus. As a 

result, FHWA is undertaking a number 

of efforts to assess these issues. The 

FHWA is seeking technical information 

and data to assist in this work. 

DATES: Data and information must be 

submitted to FHWA on or before 

February 9, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Mail or hand deliver data 

and information to the U.S. Department 

of Transportation, Dockets Management 

Facility, Room W12–140, 1200 New 

Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 

20590, or fax comments to (202) 493– 

2251. Alternatively, data or information 

may be submitted to the Federal 

eRulemaking portal at http://

www.regulations.gov. Please note that 

the Federal eRulemaking portal is 

unable to receive videos or any 

document larger than 10MB. If you 

would like to submit a video or a 

document that is 10MB or larger, please 

directly contact one of the individuals 

identified in this notice. All data and 

information must include the docket 

number that appears in the heading of 

this document. All data and information 

received will be available for 

examination and copying at the above 

address from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., e.t., 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. Those desiring notification of 

receipt of data and information must 

include a self-addressed, stamped 

postcard or you may print the 

acknowledgment page that appears after 

submitting comments electronically. 

Anyone is able to search the electronic 

form of all information in any one of our 

dockets by the name of the individual 

submitting the information (or signing 

the information, if submitted on behalf 

of an association, business, or labor 

union). The DOT solicits comments 

from the public to better inform its 

activities. The DOT posts these 

comments, without edit, including any 

personal information the commenter 

provides, to www.regulations.gov, as 

described in the system of records 

notice (DOT/ALL–14 FDMS), which can 

be reviewed at www.dot.gov/privacy. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mike Griffith, Office of Safety, 202–366– 

9469, mike.griffith@dot.gov, Federal 

Highway Administration, 1200 New 

Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 

20590. For legal questions, please 

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77596 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 247 / Wednesday, December 24, 2014 / Notices 

contact Jennifer Mayo, Assistant Chief 

Counsel, FHWA Office of the Chief 

Counsel, (202) 366–1523, or via email at 

jennifer.mayo@dot.gov, Federal 

Highway Administration, 1200 New 

Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 

20590. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access and Filing 

You may submit or retrieve 

information online through the Federal 

eRulemaking portal at: 

www.regulations.gov. The Web site is 

available 24 hours each day, 365 days 

each year. Electronic submission and 

retrieval help and guidelines are 

available under the help section of the 

Web site. 

An electronic copy of this document 

may also be downloaded from Office of 

the Federal Register’s Web site at: http:// 

www.archives.gov/federal_register and 

the Government Printing Office’s Web 

site at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov. 

Background 

As a national leader in highway 

safety, FHWA is responsible for 

ensuring that America’s roads continue 

to remain among the safest in the world. 

This commitment to safety is the 

principle that guides all our efforts, and 

FHWA is acting on multiple fronts to 

ensure the safety of roadside safety 

hardware and, specifically, the ET-Plus 

guardrail end terminal. 

The FHWA’s strategy includes a datadriven determination regarding the 

performance of the ET-Plus and 

reviewing our existing processes for 

assessing the safety of roadside safety 

hardware to determine whether we need 

to change them. 

Most immediately, we need to reach 

a conclusion about the performance of 

the ET-Plus based on the data we are 

collecting and reviewing. Our first step 

is to review all previous crash tests of 

the device and to obtain new testing to 

ensure that the ET-Plus meets the 

National Cooperative Highway Research 

Program test criteria (NCHRP 350) test 

criteria applicable to this device. These 

tests, along with field measurements of 

installed devices, will help confirm that 

the at least 200,000 ET-Plus devices on 

the system met the same criteria as all 

other guardrail end treatments. We 

expect to receive, review, and make the 

crash test results public in early 2015, 

after the completion of the testing and 

our review of the data. If the ET-Plus 

end terminal fails the crash tests or 

FHWA otherwise determines that the 

ET-Plus poses safety concerns to the 

traveling public, FHWA will revoke the 

eligibility letter for the device. 

More broadly, FHWA is reviewing 

multiple sources of information we have 

collected to assess whether the ET-Plus 

has vulnerabilities outside of the 

NCHRP 350 testing now being 

conducted. The review of this 

information will help FHWA determine 

whether to require additional testing of 

the ET-Plus or other devices in the same 

class. 

Another key component of FHWA’s 

ongoing efforts is to evaluate the inservice performance of the ET-Plus. We 

are collecting a broad array of data to 

support this assessment. The FHWA 

asked all State DOTs to send us 

information regarding the performance 

of the ET-Plus on their roadways. 

Additionally, we have obtained 

information about the ET-Plus that was 

presented in the recent trial in Texas, as 

well as data received from parties 

involved in the trial. We have analyzed 

our own safety data and data from our 

Federal safety partners, including the 

Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Study, 

the Highway Safety Information System, 

and the Fatality Analysis Reporting 

System. We will objectively and 

thoroughly assess all of this information 

to reach a data-driven conclusion about 

the real-world performance of the ETPlus. 

Purpose of This Notice 

As part of our information gathering 

about crashes involving the ET-Plus 

guardrail end terminal, FHWA is 

seeking data and information regarding 

the in-service performance of the ETPlus. In particular, we are seeking two 

sets of data and information. First, we 

are asking for any data and information 

concerning vehicle crashes involving 

the ET-Plus. Second, we are asking for 

any data and information about the 

dimensions of the ET-Plus as installed 

along roadways. 

1. ET-Plus Crash Data and 

Information. The FHWA is seeking data 

and information concerning vehicle 

crashes involving the ET-Plus. We are 

seeking crash reports, photographs of 

damaged ET-Plus devices at crash 

scenes, photographs of vehicles at crash 

scenes that impacted ET-Plus devices, 

and crash reconstruction reports with 

corresponding data. The type of data 

and information we are requesting 

includes, but is not limited to the 

following: 

• Crash narratives; 

• Crash diagrams; 

• Severity of the crash as noted in the 

crash report (Killed, A injury, B injury, 

etc.); 

• The approximate mass, speed, and 

angle of impact of the vehicle; 

• The orientation of the vehicle as it 

impacted the terminal (head-on, sideimpact, front corner, etc.); 

• The location of the crash (State, 

route, county, mile marker); 

• The type of road on which the crash 

occurred; 

• The weather at the time of the 

crash; 

• The condition of the shoulder and/ 

or roadside at the time of the crash; 

• The installation and maintenance 

history of the terminal; and 

• The condition of the terminal prior 

to the impact. 

2. ET-Plus Dimensions as Installed. 

The FHWA is seeking data concerning 

the dimensions of the ET-Plus devices 

installed on highways. In particular, we 

are interested in a few key dimensions: 

Channel width, exit gap, guide chute 

exit height, and outside guide channel 

length. We also are interested in any 

other dimensions that could be useful in 

determining the in-service performance 

of the ET-Plus. We are asking for 

existing data and information that the 

public may have and are not asking the 

public to undertake any activities that 

may risk the safety of themselves or 

others. 

The FHWA plans to objectively and 

thoroughly assess all data and 

information provide to us. We ask that 

any data or information be provided on 

or before February 9, 2015. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act 

of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.), 

Federal agencies must obtain approval 

from the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) for each collection of 

information they conduct, sponsor, or 

require through regulations. This action 

contains a collection of information 

requirement under the PRA. This 

information collection requirement has 

been previously submitted to OMB for 

approval, pursuant to the provisions of 

the PRA. The requirement has been 

approved through May 31, 2017; OMB 

Control No. 2125–0025. 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 148 and 315. 

Issued on: December 18, 2014. 

Gregory G. Nadeau, 

Acting Administrator, Federal Highway 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2014–30081 Filed 12–23–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

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