[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 6]
[Revised as of October 1, 2006]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR579.26]

[Page 1103-1104]
 
                        TITLE 49--TRANSPORTATION
 
                   CHAPTER V--NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC
                    SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT
                            OF TRANSPORTATION
 
PART 579_REPORTING OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS ABOUT POTENTIAL DEFECTS--Table of Contents
 
            Subpart C_Reporting of Early Warning Information
 
Sec.  579.26  Reporting requirements for manufacturers of tires.

    For each reporting period, a manufacturer (including a brand name 
owner) who has manufactured for sale, sold, offered for sale, introduced 
or delivered for introduction in interstate commerce, or imported tires 
in the United States shall submit the information described in this 
section. For purposes of this section, an importer of motor vehicles for 
resale is deemed to be the manufacturer of the tires on and in the 
vehicle at the time of its importation if the manufacturer of the tires 
is not required to report under this section. For paragraphs (a) and (c) 
of this section, the manufacturer shall submit information separately 
with respect to each tire line, size, SKU, plant where manufactured, and 
model year of tire manufactured during the reporting period and the four 
calendar years prior to the reporting period, including tire lines no 
longer in production. For each group of tires with the same SKU, plant 
where manufactured, and year for which the volume produced or imported 
is less than 15,000, or are deep tread, winter-type snow tires, space-
saver or temporary use spare tires, tires with nominal rim diameters of 
12 inches or less, or are not passenger car tires, light truck tires, or 
motorcycle tires, the manufacturer need only report information on 
incidents involving a death or injury, as specified in paragraph (b) of 
this section. For purposes of this section, the two-character DOT 
alphanumeric code for production

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plants located in the United States assigned by NHTSA in accordance with 
Sec. Sec.  574.5(a) and 574.6(b) of this chapter may be used to identify 
``plant where manufactured.'' If the production plant is located outside 
the United States, the full plant name must be provided.
    (a) Production information. Information that states the 
manufacturer's name, the quarterly reporting period, the tire line, the 
tire size, the tire type code, the SKU, the plant where manufactured, 
whether the tire is approved for use as original equipment on a motor 
vehicle, if so, the make, model, and model year of each vehicle for 
which it is approved, the production year, the cumulative warranty 
production, and the cumulative total production through the end of the 
reporting period. If the manufacturer knows that a particular group of 
tires is not used as original equipment on a motor vehicle, it shall 
state ``N'' in the appropriate field, and if the manufacturer is not 
certain, it shall state ``U'' in that field.
    (b) Information on incidents involving death or injury. For all 
tires manufactured during a production year covered by the reporting 
period and the four production years prior to the earliest production 
year in the reporting period:
    (1) A report on each incident involving one or more deaths or 
injuries occurring in the United States that is identified in a claim 
against and received by the manufacturer or in a notice received by the 
manufacturer which notice alleges or proves that the death or injury was 
caused by a possible defect in the manufacturer's tire, together with 
each incident involving one or more deaths occurring in a foreign 
country that is identified in a claim against and received by the 
manufacturer involving the manufacturer's tire, if that tire is 
identical or substantially similar to a tire that the manufacturer has 
offered for sale in the United States. The report shall be submitted as 
a report on tires and organized such that incidents are reported 
alphabetically by tire line, within each tire line by tire size, and 
within each tire size chronologically by production year.
    (2) For each such incident described in paragraph (b)(1) of this 
section, the manufacturer shall separately report the tire line, size, 
and production year of the tire, the TIN, the incident date, the number 
of deaths, the number of injuries for incidents occurring in the United 
States, the State or foreign country where the incident occurred, the 
make, model, and model year of the vehicle on which the tire was 
installed, and each component of the tire that allegedly contributed to 
the incident, coded as follows: 71 tread, 72 sidewall, 73 bead, 98 where 
a component not covered by categories 71 through 73 is specified in the 
claim or notice, and 99 where no component of the tire is specified in 
the claim or notice. If an incident involves more than one such code, 
each shall be reported separately in the report.
    (c) Numbers of property damage claims and warranty adjustments. 
Separate reports on the numbers of those property damage claims and 
warranty adjustments which involve the components that are specified in 
codes 71 through 73, and 98, in paragraph (b)(2) of this section. Each 
such report shall state, separately by each such code, the numbers of 
such property damage claims and warranty adjustments, respectively, that 
involve the components indicated by the code. If an underlying property 
damage claim or warranty adjustment involves more than one such code, 
each shall be reported separately in the report with no limit on the 
number of codes to be included. No reporting is necessary if the system 
or component involved is not specified in such codes, or if the TIN is 
not specified in any property damage claim.
    (d) Common green tire reporting. With each quarterly report, each 
manufacturer of tires shall provide NHTSA with a list of common green 
tires. For each specific common green tire grouping, the list shall 
provide all relevant tire lines, tire type codes, SKU numbers, brand 
names, and brand name owners.

[67 FR 45873, July 10, 2002, as amended at 68 FR 18143, Apr. 15, 2003; 
68 FR 35144, June 11, 2003]

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