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Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rear Impact Guards; Rear Impact Protection

Response to petition for reconsideration.

This document denies a petition, submitted by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, and Parents Against Tired Truckers, for reconsideration of a final rule amending Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 223, "Rear impact guards," and FMVSS No. 224, "Rear impact protection." The final rule, published on July 15, 2022, upgraded NHTSA's standards addressing rear underride protection in crashes of passenger vehicles into trailers and semitrailers by requiring rear impact guards to provide sufficient strength and energy absorption to protect occupants of compact and subcompact passenger cars impacting the rear of trailers at 56 kilometers per hour (km/h) (35 miles per hour (mph)).

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