Interpretation ID: nht71-4.5

DATE: 08/19/71

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Robert L. Carter; NHTSA

TO: International Harvester Company

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of March 18, 1971, petitioning for reconsideration of the "Defect Reports" regulations (Docket No. 69-31; Notice 2). Your letter was received on March 22, 1971, which is more than 30 days after publication of the regulation. Accordingly, pursuant to NHTSA procedural rules (49 CFR @ 553.35), it has been treated as a petition for rulemaking.

You request that the requirements specified in @ 573.4(b), that defect information reports be submitted not more than 5 working days after a defect in a vehicle has been determined to be safety related, be changed to require the report to be submitted not later than 15 days after the determination has been made. You state as the basis for this requested change that the information required pursuant to @ 573.4(c)(3) and @ 573.4(c)(7) cannot be provided by International Harvester within 5 days due to computer run-out times, but can be provided within 15 days. Section 573.4(b) of the regulation provides, as you point out, that information required pursuant to @ 573.4 that is not available within 5 days may be submitted as it becomes available. This provision deals with the issue you raise, and no amendment to the regulation is called for.

With reference to your statement that the figures you intend to report pursuant to @ 573.5(c)(6) and (c)(7) will be identical, the regulation requires different kinds of information to be reported. Only if the information required by @@ 573.5(c)(6) and (c)(7) is in fact identical may it be reported as such.

The requirements are not intended necessarily to fit within the framework of manufacturers' presently existing data gathering procedures, and may require some manufacturers to change these procedures to provide the specific information.