Transportation Department, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
This final decision notice adds a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to evaluate new model year vehicles' abilities to mitigate pedestrian injuries. Based on its previous research, NHTSA concurs with and adopts most of the European New Car Assessment Programme's (Euro NCAP) pedestrian crashworthiness assessment methods, including the injury limits for test devices and the score calculation method used for impact points. NHTSA will identify new model year vehicles meeting a certain minimum safety threshold on the Agency's website and other published literature. This notice responds in part to the provisions in Section 24213 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which requires NHTSA to incorporate measures in NCAP for evaluating the protection that new vehicles provide vulnerable road users like pedestrians.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [Docket No. NHTSA-2024-0078] ( printed page 93000) AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA or the Agency), Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Final decision notice. SUMMARY: This final decision notice adds a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to evaluate new model year vehicles' abilities to mitigate pedestrian injuries. Based on its previous research, NHTSA concurs with and adopts most of the European New Car Assessment Programme's (Euro NCAP) pedestrian crashworthiness assessment methods, including the injury limits for test devices and the score calculation method used for impact points. NHTSA will identify new model year vehicles meeting a certain minimum safety threshold on the Agency's website and other published literature. This notice responds in part to the provisions in Section 24213 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which requires NHTSA to incorporate measures in NCAP for evaluating the protection that new vehicles provide vulnerable road users like pedestrians. DATES: These changes to the New Car Assessment Program are effective for the 2026 model year. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical issues, you may contact Ms. Christina Smith, New Car Assessment Program, Office of Crashworthiness Standards (Telephone: (202) 366-1810). For legal issues, you may contact Ms. Natasha D. Reed …
Citation: 89 FR 93000