The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), are preparing to look into compliance issues—or more specifically, an inconsequential noncompliance issues—regarding two batches of laminated glass as far back as November 2017. Since the two petitions address similar issues, NHTSA and the DOT publicly acknowledged their receipt of both petitions, together, in last week’s publication of the Federal Register.
Consolidated Glass and Mirror (a Guardian subsidiary) determined that up to 1,390 of its bus door window panes made between November 2017 and March 2018, and more than 220 laminated windshields made on March 8, 2018, specifically for the IC Corp Tulsa Bus Plant to install in Navistar buses, don’t completely comply with paragraph S6 of FMVSS No. 205, Glazing Materials. Guardian, CGM’s parent company, filed two noncompliance reports: one in December 2018 and one in April 2020, while CGM petitioned NHTSA in May 2018 and again in December 2018, for a decision that the subject noncompliances are inconsequential as they relate to motor vehicle safety.
CGM explained that the noncompliance is that the markings on the subject laminated glass panes do not fully meet the requirements specified in paragraph S6 of FMVSS No. 205. Specifically, both sets of laminated glass contained identification markings that were incorrect; the windshields for Navistar buses, sent to the IC Corp Tulsa Bus Plant, should have been marked AS-1 and instead were labeled AS-2, while the bus window panes should have been marked as AS-2, but were misidentified as AS-S. Because the glass had the correct trademark, DOT number, and M number and are otherwise made to standard, and because the parts are ordered by their M numbers (preventing someone from installing the wrong part in an OE application), CGM says these misprinted AS numbers, though definitely noncompliance, are inconsequential to overall motor vehicle safety. The company is asking that their petitions be exempted from providing notification of the noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30118, and a remedy for the noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30120, be granted.
The closing date for comments on the petition is December 10, 2020.