NOTICE OF CHANGE IN LOCATION OF LEGAL INTERPRETATION LETTERS

Effective October 1, 2000, NHTSA's public viewing files for its legal interpretations will be available on the Department of Transportation docket management system located in Room PL-400, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC. The docket is open from 10:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except for Federal holidays. All legal interpretations dated before October 1, 2000, will continue to be located in room 5111.

The docket management system is an electronic docket that is accessed on the Internet. In order to view a document in our interpretation files, please follow these instructions:

  1. Go to the electronic docket at http://dms.dot.gov.

  2. Go to "search" and then click on "docket search form".

  3. Fill out the docket search form as follows:

    4. ALTERNATIVE 1:

    1. In the box entitled "Agency", scroll down to or type "NHTSA".
    2. In the box entitled "Category", scroll down to or type "Rulemaking".
    3. In the box entitled "Subcategory", scroll down to or type "Interpretations".
    4. In the box entitled "Subject" enter the applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS).

    ALTERNATIVE 2:

    1. If you do not know the applicable FMVSS but you do know the name of the individual or company requesting an interpretation, you may scroll down to the section of the form entitled "Document Information".
    2. In the box entitled "Document Type", scroll down to or type "Request" or "Interpretations".
    3. In the box entitled "Document Title", type in the name of the requestor, followed by "legal interpretation".

  4. Scroll to the top of the docket search form and click on the "search" box in the upper right hand corner.

  5. If any dockets or documents satisfy the your search request, a listing of those documents will appear.

  6. You may view each document by clicking on that entry which will bring up a docket/document information page.

  7. Scroll down to the bottom of the information page and click on either the "scanned image (TIFF)" box or "Adobe PDF" box in the lower left hand corner.

NB: The electronic docket is not a word searchable database. All legal interpretations will continue to be available in word searchable format on NHTSA's website under "Regulations and standards", "Interpretation letters" at http://iSearch.nhtsa.gov