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Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rear Impact Guards; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking Publication: Federal Register Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Raymond R. Posten Date: 30 January 2023 Subjects: American Government  , Safety, Trucking
Topic: Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance |
[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 5844-5845]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-01523]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Part 571
[Docket No. NHTSA-2023-0001]
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rear Impact Guards;
Denial of Petition for Rulemaking
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Denial of petition for rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: This document denies a petition for rulemaking from the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) requesting that NHTSA amend
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 223, ``Rear Impact
Guards,'' to remove the certification label requirement in S5.3 of the
standard. The agency is denying the petition because the requested
amendment would compromise the enforcement of the rear impact guard
standard. Limiting the ability to identify noncompliant products would
reduce the effectiveness of the standard and increase the safety risk
to the motoring public.
DATES: January 30, 2023.
ADDRESSES: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Washington, DC 20590.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For technical issues: Ms. Lina Valivullah, National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building,
Washington, DC 20590, (telephone) 202-366-8786, (email)
Lina.Valivullah@dot.gov.
For legal issues: Ms. Callie Roach, Office of the Chief Counsel,
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE, West Building, Washington, DC 20590, (telephone) 202-366-2992,
(email) Callie.Roach@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Rear impact guards for trailers reduce the risk to passenger
vehicle occupants in crashes in which a passenger vehicle impacts the
rear end of a trailer or semitrailer. Rear impact guards must be
certified as meeting applicable safety standards. S5.3 of FMVSS No. 223
and S5.1 of FMVSS No. 224 include the requirements relevant to this
petition.
The regulation at 49 CFR 571.223, S5.3, provides that each guard
shall be permanently labeled with the information specified in S5.3(a)
through (c) of FMVSS No. 223. The information shall be in English and
in letters that are at least 2.5 mm high. The label shall be placed on
the forward- or rearward-facing surface of the horizontal member of the
guard, provided that the label does not interfere with the
retroreflective sheeting required by S5.7.1.4.1(c) of FMVSS No. 108 (49
CFR 571.108), and is readily accessible for visual inspection. The
specified information includes: (a) the guard manufacturer's name and
address, (b) the statement: ``Manufactured in __'' (inserting the month
and year of guard manufacture), and (c) the letters ``DOT,''
constituting a certification by the guard manufacturer that the guard
conforms to all requirements of this standard. The regulation at 49 CFR
571.224, S5.1, requires that each vehicle shall be equipped with a rear
impact guard certified as meeting FMVSS No. 223.
The Petition
NHTSA received a petition for rulemaking from the Commercial
Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) \1\ on March 12, 2019, requesting NHTSA
to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to amend FMVSS No. 223, ``Rear
Impact Guards,'' by removing the certification label requirement in
S5.3 of the standard. CVSA provided the following justification for its
petition for rulemaking regarding the certification label requirement.
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\1\ CVSA describes itself as a nonprofit association comprised
of local, state, provincial, territorial, and federal commercial
motor vehicle safety officials and industry representatives. CVSA
aims to achieve uniformity, compatibility, and reciprocity of
commercial motor vehicle inspections and enforcement by certified
inspectors dedicated to driver and vehicle safety throughout Canada,
Mexico, and the United States. https://www.cvsa.org/about-cvsa/.
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1. CVSA states that the certification label requirement ``is
resulting in the citation of rear impact guards that otherwise meet the
physical requirements and have no negative impact on safety.'' CVSA
states that they are also petitioning the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) to remove the certification label requirement in
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) and that amending
the FMVSS would assist with that change.
2. CVSA claims that ``certification labels frequently wear, fade or
are removed during repair'' and that ``motor carriers are unable to
obtain new certification labels from the original trailer manufacturers
because they can no longer guarantee that the rear impact guard meets
the FMVSS manufacturing standard.'' CVSA says that ``there are no
reasonable options to meet the certification requirements'' as a
result.
3. CVSA believes removing the certification label requirement would
``eliminate confusion and inconsistency in enforcement,'' which CVSA
states would be beneficial, ``while not negatively impacting safety as
the physical components of the guard will still be inspected to the
same standard during a roadside inspection.''
Analysis of the Petition
NHTSA believes that the petitioner's requested amendment to FMVSS
No. 223 could reduce the safety provided by rear impact guards on
trailers and semitrailers. Under 49 U.S.C. 30112(a) (Section 30112(a)
of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act), there is a
general prohibition against manufacturing for sale, selling, offering
for sale, introducing or delivering for introduction in interstate
commerce, or importing into the United States any motor vehicle or item
of motor vehicle equipment manufactured on or after the date an
applicable motor vehicle safety standard is in effect unless the
vehicle or equipment both complies with the standard and is covered by
a certification issued under section 30115. Section 30115 requires
manufacturers of vehicles and manufacturers of motor vehicle equipment
subject to motor vehicle safety standards to certify that the vehicle
or equipment complies with all applicable FMVSS. Section 30115 further
specifies that certification of equipment may be shown by a label or
tag on the equipment or on the outside of the container in which the
equipment is delivered. Pursuant to these authorities, NHTSA issued the
certification labeling requirements for rear impact guards.
In issuing FMVSS No. 223 and FMVSS No. 224, NHTSA specifically
accounted for the burden on small trailer manufacturers. In order to
lessen to the extent reasonable the burden associated with compliance
testing on small manufacturers, NHTSA issued two standards. FMVSS No.
223 establishes the strength and certification requirements for rear
impact guards and FMVSS No. 224 establishes requirements for certain
trailers to be
[[Page 5845]]
equipped with certified rear impact guards. A trailer manufacturer has
the option to either manufacture their own rear impact guards that
comply with the equipment standard or may purchase and install guards
from a guard manufacturer that has certified the guards as complying
with FMVSS No. 223.
In the January 1996 final rule (61 FR 2004) that established FMVSS
No. 223, NHTSA described its rationale for requiring each rear impact
guard to be labeled. This rationale was provided in response to a
request that trailer manufacturers not be required to affix a
certification to rear impact guards that they manufacture and install
on trailers they produce. The commenters asked that the trailer's
certification label be allowed to serve as the certification label for
the rear impact guard. As NHTSA explained in the final rule, allowing
some guard manufacturers to omit the label would be impractical from an
enforcement standpoint. If all of the guards were not labeled, vehicle
inspectors would not be able to tell whether the guard was certified by
the guard/vehicle manufacturer as part of the vehicle or whether the
vehicle manufacturer installed a guard purchased from a guard
manufacturer that neglected to make the required certification.\2\ This
would reduce the likelihood of non-compliant guards being identified,
which would increase the safety risk to the motoring public.
Additionally, without the labeling requirement, it would be more
difficult for NHTSA to identify trends that may indicate a particular
rear impact guard contains a safety related defect. If a rear impact
guard were to be involved in a crash, it may be difficult to know who
the certifying entity was if there were no permanent labeling on it.
This would inhibit the ability of the investigators to determine a
potential safety trend involved with the subject equipment item.
Accordingly, NHTSA maintains its long-standing position \3\ that
removing a labeling requirement from the FMVSS limits the ability to
identify products that do not meet all applicable Federal motor vehicle
safety standards and compromises the enforceability of those standards.
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\2\ January 24, 1996, 61 FR 2001.
\3\ See, e.g., April 18, 2022 notice announcing the denial of
Great Dane's petition for a decision that a noncompliance involving
missing FMVSS No. 223 certification labels is inconsequential as it
relates to motor vehicle safety (87 FR 23018).
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NHTSA has considered the assertion that compliance labels ``wear,
fade or are removed during repair,'' and does not believe that this
indicates a current compliance issue with the requirements in FMVSS No.
223. FMVSS No. 223 specifies permanent labeling of the rear impact
guard on the forward- or rearward-facing surface of the horizontal
member of the guard. NHTSA does not specify a particular means (i.e.,
labeling, etching, branding, stamping, or embossing) by which the
manufacturer must achieve permanency. Thus, for NHTSA compliance
purposes, the guard label is considered permanent if it satisfies the
certification requirements specified in 49 CFR part 567. Section
567.4(b) specifies, ``The label shall, unless riveted, be permanently
affixed in such a manner that it cannot be removed without destroying
or defacing it.'' The means of achieving permanence and the exact
placement of the label are left to the discretion of the manufacturer.
NHTSA does not believe that the wearing or fading of labels that meet
this requirement for permanency would result in a significant
impairment of NHTSA's enforcement capabilities.
Conclusion
NHTSA has reviewed the petition for rulemaking submitted by CVSA
requesting that NHTSA amend FMVSS No. 223 by removing the labeling
requirement for rear impact guards on trailers and semitrailers. The
agency is denying the request because removing the labeling requirement
for rear impact guards would compromise the enforceability of FMVSS No.
223 and thereby increase the safety risk to the motoring public.
In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 30162 and 49 CFR part 552, the
petition for rulemaking from CVSA is hereby denied.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117, and 30166;
delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8.
Raymond R. Posten,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
[FR Doc. 2023-01523 Filed 1-27-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P