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Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (CARS Program)
The Act establishes a new program under which the government will provide $3,500 or $4,500 to help consumers purchase or lease a new, more fuel efficient car, van, sport utility vehicle or pickup truck from a participating dealer when they trade in an old, less fuel efficient vehicle.  

Summary of the CARS Act of 2009 and notice of upcoming rulemaking proceeding

Amendment to Final Rule

Final Rule

Final Regulatory Impact Analysis

49 CFR Part 571 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rearview Mirrors
In response to a petition for rulemaking, this document proposes to require straight trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of between 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) and 11,793 kilograms (26,000 pounds) to be equipped with a rear object detection system.  
49 CFR Parts 541, 542, 543 Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard  

Final Rule; Response to petitions for reconsiderations

Final Rule

49 CFR Part 591 Importation of Commercial Motor Vehicles
This document proposes to add a definition of the term "import" to our regulation on the importation of motor vehicles.  
49 CFR Part 575 Consumer Information; New Car Assessment Program; Rollover Resistance  

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

49 CFR Part 571 Fuel System Integrity  
49 CFR Part 563 Event Data Recorders (EDRs)  

Final Regulatory Evaluation

Final rule

Frequently Asked Questions and Additional Information

49 CFR Part 571, 598 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Side Impact Protection; Side Impact Phase-In Reporting Requirements  
49 CFR Part 573, 574, 576, 579 Reporting of Information and Documents About Potential Defects; Retention of Records That Could Indicate Defects  
49 CFR Part 575 Stars on Cars: New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) Safety Labeling
A provision of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) requires new passenger vehicles to be labeled with safety rating information published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under its New Car Assessment Program. NHTSA is required to issue regulations to ensure that the labeling requirements “are implemented by September 1, 2007.” This final rule is issued to fulfill that mandate.  

Final Rule

49 CFR Part 571 Theft Protection and Rollaway Prevention  

Extension of Comment Period on NPRM

49 CFR Part 575 Consumer Information Regulations; Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rollover Resistance  
49 CFR Part 571, 572, 589 Head Impact Protection  
49 CFR Part 571 Occupant Crash Protection  

Final Rule

49 CFR Part 576 Recordkeeping and Record Retention  
49 CFR Part 565 Vehicle Identification Number Requirements  

Final Rule

Rear Visibility NCAP Request for Comment
This document requests public comment on the agency’s planned update to the U.S. New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). This update would enhance the program’s ability to recommend to motor vehicle consumers various vehicle models that contain rearview video systems that would substantially enhance the driver’s ability to avoid backover crashes.  

Request for Comment

49 CFR Part 571 Event Data Recorder (EDR)
This notice of proposed rulemaking would establish a new safety standard mandating the installation of EDRs in most light vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2014. The EDRs in those vehicles would be required by the new standard to meet the data elements, data capture and format, data retrieval, and data crash survivability requirements of the existing regulation.  

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

49 CFR Part 301 Fuel System Integrity  
226 49 CFR Parts 571, 585 Ejection Mitigation
This final rule establishes a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 226, "Ejection Mitigation" to reduce the partial and complete ejection of vehicle occupants through side windows in crashes, particularly rollover crashes.  The standard applies to the side windows next to the first three rows of seats, and to a portion of the cargo area behind the first or second rows, in motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kilogram (kg) or less (10,000 pounds (lb) or less).  To assess compliance, the agency is adopting a test in which an impactor is propelled from inside a test vehicle toward the windows.  The ejection mitigation safety system is required to prevent the impactor from moving more than a specified distance beyond the plane of a window.  

Final Rule

222 49 CFR Part 571 School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection  

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Final Rule

216 49 CFR Parts 571 and 585 Roof Crush Resistance
As part of a comprehensive plan for reducing the risk of rollover crashes and the risk of death and serious injury in those crashes, this final rule upgrades the agency’s safety standard on roof crush resistance in several ways.  

Extension of comment period

Final Rule

Supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM)

216 49 CFR Parts 571 and 585 Roof Crush Resistance; Phase-In Reporting Requirements
As part of a comprehensive plan for reducing the risk of rollover crashes and the risk of death and serious injury in those crashes, this final rule upgrades the agency’s safety standard on roof crush resistance in several ways.  

Final Rule

214 49 CFR Parts 571 and 585 Side Impact Protection
This final rule incorporates a dynamic pole test into Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, “Side impact protection.” To meet the test, vehicle manufacturers will need to assure head and improved chest protection in side crashes. It will lead to the installation of new technologies, such as side curtain air bags and torso side air bags, which are capable of improving head and thorax protection to occupants of vehicles that crash into poles and trees and vehicles that are laterally struck by a higher-riding vehicle.  

Final Rule

208 49 CFR Part 552, 571, 585, 595 Occupant Crash Protection
The agency is proposing to upgrade the agency's occupant protection standard to require advanced air bags.  

Final rule; interim final rule.

208 49 CFR Part 571 Seat Belts on Motorcoaches
In accordance with NHTSA’s 2007 Motorcoach Safety Plan and DOT’s 2009 Departmental Motorcoach Safety Action Plan, NHTSA is issuing this NPRM to propose to amend the Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) on occupant crash protection (FMVSS No. 208) to require lap/shoulder seat belts for each passenger seating position in new motorcoaches.This NPRM also proposes to require a lap/shoulder belt for the motorcoach and large school bus driver’s seating positions, which currently are required to have either a lap or a lap/shoulder belt.  

Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)

140 Part: 49 CFR Part 571 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Speed Limiting Devices
NHTSA and FMCSA propose regulations that would require vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 11,793.4 kilograms (26,000 pounds) to be equipped with a speed limiting device initially set to a speed no greater than a speed to be specified in a final rule and would require motor carriers operating such vehicles in interstate commerce to maintain functional speed limiting devices set to a speed no greater than a speed to be specified in the final rule for the service life of the vehicle.  

Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis and Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

Draft Environmental Assessment

126 49 CFR Parts 571 & 585 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Electronic Stability Control Systems
As part of a comprehensive plan for reducing the serious risk of rollover crashes and the risk of death and serious injury in those crashes, this rule establishes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 126 to require electronic stability control (ESC) systems on passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 Kg (10,000 pounds) or less. ESC systems use automatic computer-controlled braking of individual wheels to assist the driver in maintaining control in critical driving situations. NHTSA estimates ESC will reduce single-vehicle crashes of passenger cars by 34% and single vehicle crashes of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) by 59%, with a much greater reduction of rollover crashes. NHTSA estimates ESC would save 5,300 to 9,600 lives and prevent 156,000 to 238,000 injuries in all types of crashes annually once all light vehicles on the road are equipped with ESC.  

Final Rule

Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Final Regulatory Impact Analysis

121 49 CFR Part 571 Air Brake Systems
Amends the FMVSS on air brake systems to improve the stopping distance performance of truck tractors. The rule requires the vast majority of new heavy truck tractors to achieve a 30 percent reduction in stopping distance compared to currently required levels. For these heavy truck tractors (approximately 99 percent of the fleet), the amended standard requires those vehicles to stop in not more than 250 feet when loaded to their gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and tested at a speed of 60 miles per hour (mph). For a small number of very heavy severe service tractors, the stopping distance requirement will be 310 feet under these same conditions. In addition, this final rule requires that all heavy truck tractors must stop within 235 feet when loaded to their “lightly loaded vehicle weight” (LLVW).  

Final Rule

Final Rule - partial response to petitions for reconsideration.

118 49 CFR Part 571 FMVSS, Power-operated window, partition, and roof panel systems  

Withdrawal of NPRM

Notice of proposed rulemaking

111 NPRM to Require a Rear Detection System for Single-Unit Trucks
The agency estimates that approximately 79 fatalities per year (13 on-road and 66 off-road) and 148 injuries per year are attributable to straight trucks backing up. The agency believes that requiring a rear detection system will reduce the number of fatalities, injuries, and property damage crashes by giving truck operators the ability to detect objects behind the truck. In this analysis, we examine two possible counter-measures: a cross-view mirror system and a camera system.  
111 49 CFR, Parts 571 & 585 FMVSS, Rearview Mirrors
The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 directs NHTSA issue a final rule amending the agency’s Federal motor vehicle safety standard on rearview mirrors to improve the ability of a driver to detect pedestrians in the area immediately behind his or her vehicle and thereby minimize the likelihood of a vehicle’s striking a pedestrian while its driver is backing the vehicle. Pursuant to this mandate, NHTSA is proposing to expand the required field of view for all passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles, buses, and low-speed vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less, gross vehicle weight. NHTSA is proposing to specify an area immediately behind each vehicle that the driver must be able to see when the vehicle’s transmission is in reverse. It appears that, in the near term, the only technology available with the ability to comply with this proposal would be a rear visibility system that includes a rear-mounted video camera and an in-vehicle visual display. Adoption of this proposal would significantly reduce fatalities and injuries caused by backover crashes involving children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and other pedestrians.  

Advance Notice of Propsed Rulemaking

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

108 49 CFR Part 571 Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment
Issues related to glare produced by lamps mounted on the fronts of vehicles  

Final Rule (Notice 3) - delay of effective date.

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U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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Washington, DC 20590
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