Emergency Exit NPRM Example of Cooperation A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
issued in December by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the result of “continuing cooperative efforts” between the School Bus Manu- facturers Technical Council (SBMTC) and the feds to clarify language within Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 217, according to Council Chair Shawn Finkbeiner. “Te NPRM does not change the way
manufacturers are building buses, but rather clarifies some language specifically around the exterior handles of the emer- gency exits,” said Finkbeiner, IC Bus’ plant resident engineer. The effort on this specific proposed
rulemaking began in February 2004 with a request from SBMTC for a technical amendment concerning the position of the exterior release for school bus rear emergency exit doors. It was later with- drawn and resubmitted to NHTSA by the SBMTC as a petition for a rulemak- ing two months later. Currently, FMVSS 217 specifies that the handle be located in the middle of the rear emergency door, while the petition and subsequent NPRM would move the handle to the side opposite the door hinges. “Tis current language within FMVSS
217 combines both the exterior handle with the interior handle location, and does not contribute to the safety of the passengers,” added Finkbeiner. “SBMTC’s discussions with NHTSA revealed that the language within the NPRM is what was originally intended when the regulation was implemented.” Te second half of the proposed rule-
making focuses on the number of force applications that are required to open a window or roof emergency exit on a school bus, something that some do not see as a point of contention. “I don’t see that there’s going to
be any issue or contradiction in what would come out of our 2010 congress proceedings,” said Pete Baxter, Indiana’s state director of student transportation and the National Congress on School
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Transportation general conference chair. “Te clarification on the applications of force to open the windows and the roof hatches is clarifying a poorly worded sentence structure.”
Baxter added that he does not believe
emergency exit door handles will even af- fect the topics delegates are scheduled to debate at the 2010 NCST proceedings in Warrensburg in mid-May. n
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