NHTSA Releases the NPRM for the Next FMVSS Safety Standard
On September 9th, 2024, NHTSA released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for FMVSS 571.228: Standard No. 228; Pedestrian Head Protection. The NPRM has a 60-day comment window with a proposed compliance date of the first September 1, two years following the final rule publication.
Based on Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 9, this proposed standard evaluates injuries of adult and child head impacts to a vehicle hood in a dynamic event. At this time, the regulation does not include testing for compliance to the upper and lower legforms currently evaluated in EuroNCAP, GTR No.9, and other pedestrian regulations.
For over twenty years, MGA has conducted Pedestrian Protection testing according to various global standards, including GTR No.9 and EuroNCAP. MGA’s test engineers have experience in the full suite of pedestrian protection testing from Adult and Child Headforms to the Upper Leg, PDI-2, FLEX-PLI, aPLI, and more. During the last several years, MGA has conducted many GTR No.9 global test programs and most recently presented Passive Pedestrian Testing at the Government/Industry Meeting in January 2023 held in Washington, DC. MGA’s test facilities include seven dynamic test labs across the US that offer the automotive industry state-of-the-art dynamic testing services for vehicle development, compliance, and post-production conformity related to energy management test scenarios.
MGA’s Pedestrian Protection equipment is designed and manufactured internally and used at dozens of test facilities worldwide. The three-axis frame with position memory, coupled with a pneumatic adjustable head launcher, provides accurate and repeatable head impacts across all vehicle geometries. Precision and accuracy are critical to successful pedestrian head impact testing. MGA employs an automated head positioning system incorporated directly into the software.
As with other new safety standards, MGA will be holding workshops to highlight this new safety regulation. If you are interested in attending a workshop or for additional information about FMVSS 228 or other Pedestrian Protection testing, please reach out to Hannah Fortnam at hannah.fortnam@mgaresearch.com
The NPRM can be found here: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2024-09/NPRM-pedestrian-head-protection-web-version.pdf
