Working Party on Passive Safety | Session 73 | 15-19 May 2023
Geneva
Agenda Item 16.
UN Regulation No. 137 (Frontal impact with focus on restraint systems)

40. As per paragraphs 23, 25 and 38, the expert from OICA introduced GRSP-73-30 (superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2023/20) to incorporate provisions on hydrogen- fuelled vehicles into UN Regulation No. 137. GRSP adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2023/20 as amended by annex X to the session report. The secretariat was requested to submit the proposal as draft 03 Series of Amendments to UN Regulation No. 137 for consideration and vote at the November 2023 sessions of WP.29 and AC.1.

41. The expert from Japan reiterated GRSP-73-27 on amending the requirement of the Thorax Compression Criterion (ThCC) of the 5th female dummy in vehicles of category N1 with a maximum permissible mass not exceeding 2,800 kg. He provided the crash data evidence as requested at the December 2022 session of GRSP showing that elderly female passengers require protection in Japan when travelling in the front seats of N1 vehicles. He announced an official proposal for the December 2023 session of GRSP that incorporates the protection of elderly people into N1 vehicles, which currently apply only to M1. The expert from the Republic of Korea expressed a time reservation to allow investigation at the national level. The expert from France suggested national data comparisons for the December 2023 session of GRSP. The expert from the Netherlands suggested that motorhomes could also be included. The expert from OICA expressed a study reservation arguing that the issue was limited to Japan and suggested consideration of different markets. The expert from Austria stated that Japan was advanced in considering this issue. She also informed GRSP that the IWG on Equitable Protection of Occupants (EqOP) already considered the contribution of Japan for its future work. GRSP agreed to resume discussion at its December 2023 session based on an official proposal submitted by the expert from Japan. Meanwhile, GRSP requested its experts to provide national crash data to justify the proposal to Mr. Yoshinori TANAKA (NTSEL Japan, y-tanaka@ntsel.go.jp) and to Ms. Kazumi WATANABE (JASIC secretariat, watanabe@jasic.org).

Documentation
GRSP-72-06 UN R137: Proposal for the 03 series of amendments (Japan)
GRSP-73-27 UN R137: Frontal Collision Accident Study in Japan (Category N1) (Japan)
GRSP-73-30 UN R137: Proposal for 03 Series of Amendments (OICA)
GRSP/2023/20 UN R137: Proposal for the 03 series of amendments (OICA)