Administrative Agency

1. State the administrative agency which controls the regulation. Explain why this agency and your proposed regulation interests you (briefly). Will this proposed regulation affect you or the business in which you are working? If so, how? Submit a copy of the proposed regulation along with your responses to these five questions. The proposed regulation can be submitted as either a separate Word document (.doc) or Adobe file (.pdf). This means you will submit two attachments to the Week 2 Dropbox: (1) a Word doc with the questions and your answers and (2) a copy of the proposed regulation you used for this assignment. (10 points)

There are two agencies that are administrating this proposed regulation. They are the Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This regulation interests me because it requires all passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles, buses and low-speed vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less to expand the required field of view. The vehicles that my family owns are considered to be passenger cars and are rated less than 10,000 pounds. The passing of this law would require us to add rear-viewing cameras to our vehicles, which is the only technology available at this time.

2. Describe the proposal/change. (10 points)

The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 directs NHTSA to 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. Specifically, 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 back over crashes involving children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and other pedestrians.

3. Write the public comment which you would submit to this proposal. If the proposed regulation deadline has already passed, write the comment you would have submitted. Explain briefly what you wish to accomplish with your comment. (10 points)

My comment is that many vehicles are considered to be less than 10,000 pounds. Any individual that owns a passenger car would be required to install rear-viewing cameras, which the regulation considers the only technology available. Such an upgrade to vehicles could cost $90 to $250 without labor. If a potential car owner were to buy a new car would have to pay up to $3000 worth of