Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Pedestrian Head Protection, Global Technical Regulation No. 9; Incorporation by Reference

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>National Highway Traffic Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 571</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. NHTSA-NHTSA-2024-0057]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2127-AK98</RIN> <SUBJECT>Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Pedestrian Head Protection, Global Technical Regulation No. 9; Incorporation by Reference</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NHTSA proposes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that would ensure passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kilograms (kg) (10,000 pounds (lb)) or less are designed to mitigate the risk of serious to fatal injury in child and adult pedestrian crashes. The proposed standard would establish test procedures simulating a head-to-hood impact and performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. This NPRM is based on a Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on pedestrian protection, with focused enhancements to address safety problems and a regulatory framework unique to the United States. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before November 18, 2024. <E T="03">Proposed compliance date:</E> The first September 1, two (2) years following the date of publication of any final rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> , with optional early compliance permitted. Final-stage manufacturers and alterers would be provided an additional year to comply. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments to the docket number identified in the heading of this document by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Docket Management Facility, M-30, U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Rm. W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery or Courier:</E> West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 366-9332 before coming. Regardless of how you submit your comments, please mention the docket number of this document. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> For detailed instructions on submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking process, see the Public Participation heading of the <E T="02">Supplementary Information</E> section of this document. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> or the street address listed above. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 366-9322 before coming. Follow the online instructions for accessing the dockets. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For non-legal issues: Vincent Wu, Office of Crashworthiness Standards (telephone: (202) 366-1740, fax (202) 493-2990). For legal issues: Matthew Filpi, Office of the Chief Counsel (telephone: 202-366-3179). The mailing address for these officials is: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. This Proposed Standard</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Potential Impacts of the Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Safety Need</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Foundations of the Proposal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. The Global Technical Regulation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Introduction</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. GTR 9</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Further Observations About the Differences Between This NPRM and the GTR</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Approach of the Proposed Standard</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Overview</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Relevance to the Involved Vehicles</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Advantages of Headform Component Tests</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Head Injury Criterion (HIC)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Speed and Angle at Which the Headforms Would Impact the Hood</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Defining the Relevant Areas Subject to the Standard</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Determining the Hood Top</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Hood Area</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Defining the Child Headform Test Area and the Adult Headform Test Area</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Proposed Requirements and Assessing Compliance</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Amount of Hood Area That Must Conform to HIC 1000</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Manufacturer Designations of HIC1700 Areas</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. First Point of Contact</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Consideration Related to the Amount of Test Area That Must Meet the HIC100 and HIC1700 Limits</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Considerations for Expansion of Test Area When It Is Less Than Two Thirds of the Numerical Value of the Hood Area</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. GTR 9 Terminology and Amendment 3</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Comparison of Terminology</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Amendment 3</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Headform Characteristics</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. General</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Qualification Limits</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Repeatability and Reproducibility</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">X. Other Issues</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Active Hoods</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XI. Effect on Other Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XII. Proposed Lead Time</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XIII. Benefits and Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XIV. Considered Alternatives</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XV. Rulemaking Analyses and Notices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XVI. Public Participation </FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> Improving pedestrian safety is a high priority of the Department of Transportation. Data show pedestrian fatalities increasing substantially in recent years. NHTSA issues this NPRM in an effort to address this safety problem. This NPRM proposes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that would ensure that passenger vehicles are designed to reduce the risk of serious to fatal child and adult head injury in pedestrian crashes. This rulemaking initiates the process of adopting a Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on pedestrian protection as an FMVSS, with focused enhancements to the GTR to address safety problems and a regulatory framework unique to the U.S. In addition, this NPRM furthers the goals and policies of DOT's January 2022 National Roadway Safety Strategy, which describes the five key objectives of the Department's Safe System Approach: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and post-crash care. New Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 228, <E T="03">Pedestrian head protection,</E> would apply to passenger cars, light trucks (including pickups), multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs) (MPVs include sport utility vehicles (SUVs), crossover vehicles and vans) and buses with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less. The standard would require vehicles to meet a head injury criterion (HIC) when subjected to testing simulating a head-to-hood impact. The vehicles would have to reduce the risk of serious to fatal head injury to child and adult pedestrians in impacts at vehicle speeds up to 40 km/h (25 mph), which encompass about 70 percent of pedestrian injuries from vehicle impacts. Moreover, it is expected the standard would be beneficial even at higher speeds. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> This NPRM advances NHTSA's objective of adopting a motor vehicle crashworthiness safety standard to ensure that passenger vehicles are designed to mitigate the risk of serious to fatal child and adult pedestrian head injury. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Hu, J., Lin, Y.-S., Boyle, K., Bonifas, A., Reed, M.P., Gupta, V., & Lin, C.H. (2023, November). <E T="03">Pedestrian safety: assessment of crashworthiness test procedures</E> (Report No. DOT HS 813 518). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. </FTNT> This NPRM is part of a multi-step approach to enhance vehicle performance against pedestrian injury. First, it initiates the process of adopting Global Technical Regulation No. 9 (GTR 9), “Pedestrian safety,” into the Federal safety standards. NHTSA has collaborated with governments internationally to develop GTR 9, and numerous countries have adopted the GTR into their regulations. FMVSS No. 228 would establish a pedestrian standard domestically, to ensure that all vehicles with a GVWR of 4,536 kg (10,000 lb.) or less manufactured in or imported into the United States—including a sub-group of light trucks (large pickups and large SUVs) more common in the U.S. than in other parts of the world—mitigate the risk of serious head injury to pedestrians. Second, the standard would provide a regulatory counterpart to NHTSA's planned crashworthiness pedestrian protection testing program in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) in the near term. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On May 26, 2023, NHTSA published an NCAP Request for Comment (NCAP RFC) proposing to adopt a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program into NHTSA's NCAP. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> NCAP would build on proposed FMVSS No. 228 and incorporate enhanced crashworthiness tests into NCAP that go beyond the specifications of proposed FMVSS No. 228. NCAP remains a consumer information program that provides consumers wit ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 358k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━