Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking

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This document denies a petition for rulemaking submitted by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA). NMEDA sought to extend the duration of the exclusion (now expired) of light trucks and vans (LTVs) ``manufactured for operation by persons with disabilities'' from the dynamic test requirements for manual seat belts and automatic restraints in the Federal occupant crash protection standard. The petition also sought to expand the exclusion to apply to all types of vehicles manufactured to be operated by individuals with disabilities. The exclusion was established for businesses that either manufacture light trucks and vans designed to be operated by persons with disabilities or alter those vehicles before their first retail sale. In the absence of the exclusion, these businesses would have been required to certify that their vehicles met the dynamic and automatic crash protection requirements. The exclusion indirectly benefitted another group of businesses, ones that modify vehicles, after their first retail sale, so that they can be operated by persons with disabilities. In the absence of the exclusion, a statutory prohibition against making federally-required sa