Interpretation ID: nht92-2.38

DATE: 11/10/92

FROM: BARRY FELRICE -- ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR RULEMAKING, NHTSA

TO: DENNIS T. JOHNSTON -- ENGINEERING PLANNING AND LIAISON MANAGER, ROVER GROUP NORTH AMERICAN ENGINEERING OFFICE

ATTACHMT: ATTACHED TO LETTER DATED 8-12-92 FROM DENNIS T. JOHNSTON TO NHTSA ADMINISTRATOR

TEXT: This responds to your document dated August 12, 1992, which was characterized as either a petition for reconsideration or a request for interpretation, depending on our response. The document concerned a final rule published in the Federal Register (57 FR 30917) on July 13, 1992, which responded to petitions for reconsideration concerning the extension of Standard No. 214's quasi-static side door strength requirements to light trucks, buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles (collectively referred to as LTV's). As discussed below, we are treating your document as a comment on a related January 1992 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), and not a petition, because your concerns relate to a possible future final rule based on that NPRM.

By way of background information, NHTSA extended Standard No. 214's quasi-static side door strength requirements to LTV's in a final rule published on June 14, 1991. In the preamble to the final rule, the agency stated that it intended to propose amendments to the standard in the near future to clarify the test procedure for two types of doors, double-opening doors and doors without windows. NHTSA's NPRM was subsequently published in the Federal Register (57 FR 1716) on January 15, 1992.

As discussed in the January 1992 NPRM, the agency determined that clarification of the test procedure was needed for certain contoured doors, as well as for double-opening doors and doors without windows. Standard No. 214's test procedure works well when a door's lower edge is essentially horizontal along its entire length, or only a small portion of the door's lower edge deviates from that description by being contoured upward. Almost all passenger cars have doors of these types. However, as discussed in the January 1992 NPRM, the standard's test procedure is not appropriate when only a small portion of a door's lower edge is horizontal and the edge is contoured significantly upwards for a large part of the door. Some LTV's have such doors.

The NPRM therefore proposed amendments to clarify the test procedure for contoured doors.

The comments closing date for the January 1992 NPRM was March 16, 1992. The agency has not yet reached a decision concerning a possible final rule. On July 13, 1992, however, NHTSA published its response to a petition for reconsideration of the initial final rule extending Standard No. 214's side door strength requirements to LTV's. The petition requested that the agency phase-in the new requirements instead of applying them to all of the newly covered vehicles simultaneously. As part of its response to that petition, NHTSA delayed by one year the effective date for double opening cargo doors, doors with no windows, and certain contoured doors on those vehicles.

In your August 12, 1992 letter, you noted that the July 1992 final rule delayed the effective date of the side door strength requirements for doors for which the ratio of the width of the lowest portion of the door to the width of the door at its widest point is not greater than 0.5. You expressed concern that, in a possible final rule based on the January 1992 NPRM, the agency might use a discriminator other than the 0.5 ratio for determining which contoured doors must conform to particular tests. You stated that this could have significant cost impacts on your company.

While you characterize your document as a possible petition for reconsideration of the July 1992 final rule, the only concerns you raise relate to a possible final rule based on the January 1992 NPRM. Therefore, we do not consider your document to be a petition for reconsideration.

I note that the use of the 0.5 ratio in the July 1992 final rule was not intended as a signal concerning the final action the agency may take on the January 1992 NPRM. As indicated above, the current Standard No. 214 test procedure only creates problems for contoured doors which have a significant degree of contour. In order to delay the effective date for those doors and not ones that have only a small degree of contour, it was necessary to specify a definition. The agency selected the 0.5 ratio to ensure that the effective date was delayed for contoured doors which have a significant degree of contour.

We will consider your August 1992 submission as a comment on the January 1992 NPRM. A copy of this correspondence is being placed in the public docket.