25. The representative of the United States of America, on behalf of the Chair of GRSP, informed WP.29 about the results made by GRSP during its fifty-first session (for more details see the report of the session ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/51 available at: www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29wgs/wp29grsp/grsprep.html.

26. Concerning the development of a UN GTR on electric vehicles, the representative of the United States of America reported that GRSP adopted the terms of reference of the informal working group on electric vehicle safety as reproduced in Annex II of the GRSP report (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/51) and sought the consent of WP.29 and AC.3. The World Forum agreed that AC.3 should consider this matter (see para. 93 below).

27. Concerning the development of a UN GTR on hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles (HFCV) prepared by the special group safety (SGS), he reported that GRSP expected to adopt the proposal at its December 2012 session and agreed to seek consent of WP.29 and AC.3 for an extension of the mandate until December 2012 of the special group safety (SGS). The World Forum agreed that AC.3 should consider this matter (see para. 87 below).

28. Referring to the activities of GRSP on rechargeable energy storage systems (REESS), he sought the guidance of WP.29 for a possible request to the Working Party on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (WP.15) to solve the issue of the ban of the transport of (both maritime shipping and airfreight) batteries heavier than 35 kg. The World Forum agreed to resume consideration of this issue at its next session awaiting further information provided by the representative of the United States of America.

29. Concerning the new draft Regulation on Child Restraint Systems, he informed WP.29 that GRSP had amended the terms of references of the informal working group, as reproduced in Annex VI of the GRSP report (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/51) to extend until December 2014 its mandate to accomplish Phases 2 and 3 of the planned work and sought consent of WP.29. The World Forum endorsed in principle the amended terms of references of the informal working group, pending the formal adoption of the report of the May 2012 session of GRSP.

21. The World Forum recalled the oral report of the Chair of GRSP given during the 157th session (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1097, paras. 25-29) and approved the report.

5. The expert from the United Kingdom, Chair of the informal working group on UN GTR No. 7 Phase 2, informed GRSP (GRSP-52-18) about the ongoing activities of the group. He added that the last meeting of the group was held in Geneva on 10-11 December 2012, prior to the GRSP session. He confirmed that the development of injury criteria was of critical importance and that they would be discussed at the next informal group meeting in February 2013. He added that the development of a proposal for a certification procedure of the dummy was in progress and that extensive study funded by the EC identified areas of dummy performance, particularly regarding reproducibility, that required further investigation. The expert from Japan, secretary of the informal working group, complemented the presentation of the expert from the United Kingdom introducing the last status report of the informal working group (GRSP-52-23). He also confirmed the goal of the group to submit a proposal for consideration at the December 2013 session of GRSP.

6. Referring to the discussion held during the November 2012 session of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1099, para. 76), GRSP noted that a Mutual Resolution concerning the description and performance of test tools and devices had been adopted (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2012/124 and WP.29-158-19) and reproduced as ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1101. GRSP, also noted that as part of the proposal of the UN GTR, a specific addenda for the inclusion of the Biofidelic Rear Impact Dummy (BioRID II) in this Resolution would be prepared by the informal working group.

7. The expert from Germany, co-Chair of the informal working group on pedestrian safety introduced the third progress report of the group (GRSP-52-31), the updated terms of references (ToR) and operating principles of the informal working group (GRSP-52-32) and a first draft UN GTR for information purposes only (GRSP-52-33). GRSP endorsed the third status report of the informal working group (GRSP-52-31), adopted its new terms of reference (GRSP-52-32) as reproduced in Annex II to this report and agreed to seek endorsement from WP.29 and from the Executive Committee of the 1998 Agreement (AC.3) at their March 2013 sessions.

8. The expert from the United States introduced GRSP-52-27 aimed at explaining his study reservation to the proposed amendment to the UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/31 and ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/14). He explained that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was currently conducting tests to evaluate differences between target/aim point and first point of contact with respect to testable area and Head Injury Criteria (HIC) outcome. He concluded that, until this testing was completed, he was not in the position to give a final decision on the proposal. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this subject at its May 2013 session.

9. The expert from Australia, on behalf of the Chair of the informal working group on Pole Side Impact (PSI), introduced GRSP-52-07, including the last progress report of the group and a draft of the UN GTR. He explained that the draft was provided to gather comments from GRSP experts to be sent in writing to the Chair of the informal working group by 25 January 2013. He underlined that comments were particularly sought on Annex 2 of Part II of the draft UN GTR, which was setting out the seating procedure for the test dummy (50th percentile male dummy). Concerning the scope, the expert from OICA argued that real-world data indicated the low involvement of N1 and N2 category of vehicles in PSI accidents and proposed their removal from the scope. The expert from Australia explained that the Contracting Parties (CPs) to the 1998 Agreement had the discretion to exclude particular vehicle types for which there were sufficient national safety measures to justify the restraint application of the UN GTR (see GRSP-52-07, Part I, para. 47).

10. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this agenda item at its May 2013 session and noted that AC.3 at its November 2012 session agreed to fix the deadline for the Phase 1 of the informal working group at March 2014 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1099, para. 105) Moreover, the secretariat was requested to distribute GRSP-52-07 (only the part related to the draft UN GTR) with an official symbol.

11. The expert from the United States, Chair of the informal working group on harmonization of side impact dummies, gave an oral report of the work progress of the group. She confirmed that her group was finalizing the validation of the 50th percentile of the World Side Impact Dummy (World SID). Concerning the 5th percentile female dummy she announced that the informal working group agreed to start over pelvic re-design reducing contact during pelvis impact test. She added that this activity could take time. Accordingly, she suggested suspending the activity of the Informal Working Group on Pole Side Impact once the Phase I would be concluded, awaiting the outcome of the informal group on side impact dummies on the 5th percentile female.

12. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this subject at its May 2013 session and to seek consent of AC.3 to fix the deadline mandate of the informal working group at December 2015.

17. The expert from Japan, Chair of the informal working subgroup safety (SGS) and the expert from the United States introduced the most draft UN GTR on hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/23, superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/12 and the final status report (GRSP-52-08) of SGS. The expert from the United States of America stated that the application of the current proposal of the UN GTR addressing passenger vehicles and three main systems: (i) fuel system integrity, (ii) electrical safety and (iii) hydrogen storage systems. The expert from the United States clarified that Phase 2 of the UN GTR would address the performance requirements of containers of any kind (i.e. liquefied hydrogen, cryo-compressed hydrogen (CcH2)) and harmonized types of crash tests (rear, front and lateral). He clarified that Contracting Parties, adopting this first phase of the UN GTR may apply crash tests standards in use in their national legislations to verify post-crash integrity of the three vehicle systems mentioned above.

18. GRSP adopted the final progress report of SGS (GRSP-52-08), as reproduced in Annex III to this report. GRSP agreed to remove the square brackets from paras. 5.3.1.2.4.3. and 5.3.2.2.3. and to recommend ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/23 not amended and the final progress report to AC.3 for consideration and vote at its June 2013 session.

19. Finally, GRSP expressed its appreciation to Mr. V. Blinov from United Nations Office Geneva linguistic translation services for the accuracy in translating the Russian version of the draft UN GTR.

22. The expert from CLEPA introduced a revised proposal (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/20) proposing to increase the strap acceleration to 3 g to prevent the locking phenomena during the buckling up of the safety-belts. GRSP finally adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/20, including a correction to Annex 13 to the UN Regulation, as reproduced by Annex IV to this report. The secretariat was requested to submit ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/20 as amended to WP.29 and AC.1, for consideration and vote at their June 2013 sessions as draft Supplement 4 to the 06 series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 16.

23. The expert from OICA introduced GRSP-52-06 proposing an update of the air-bag labelling provisions into UN Regulation No. 16. The proposal received some comments such as those by the expert from Sweden (GRSP-52-14) proposing to align UN Regulation No. 16 completely with the provisions recently introduced into UN Regulation No. 94 (frontal collision) on this subject. Other experts suggested coming back to the preceding proposal (GRSP-51-14) referring to the paragraph numbers of UN Regulation No. 94 instead. GRSP agreed to resume discussion at its May 2013 session.

24. The expert from EC introduced GRSP-52-26, aimed at aligning the French version of paragraph 7.6.2.2. to the English one. GRSP adopted GRSP-52-26 as reproduced in Annex IV to this report and requested the secretariat to submit it to WP.29 and AC.1, for consideration and vote at their June 2013 sessions as draft Corrigendum 1 to Revision 7 to the UN Regulation.

25. GRSP noted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/25, aimed at simplifying transitional provisions to the UN Regulation. However, GRSP preferred to defer discussion on this subject at its further session, awaiting further comments and the outcome of the activities of the WP.29 informal working group on the International World Vehicle Type Approval (IWVTA).

28. No new information was provided for this agenda item.

29. The expert from Sweden introduced GRSP-52-28, proposing an alternative to the scope of the UN Regulation as suggested by the expert from the Russian Federation (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/19). He clarified that the mandate of the informal working group had been the development of new testing procedures for trucks of categories N2 with a gross vehicle mass exceeding 7.5 t and for categories N3. He added that the testing procedures for trucks of categories N1 and N2 with a gross vehicle mass not exceeding 7.5 t were to be left unchanged. GRSP agreed to keep GRSP-52-28 as a reference in the agenda and to resume discussion on this subject at its May 2013 session on the basis of proposals prepared by the experts from Sweden and OICA.

30. The expert from Germany gave a presentation (GRSP-52-21) to introduce a proposal (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/24), aimed at allowing arrangements of the test dummy to enable upper legs rotation around the vertical and transverse axis. He added that these improvements would allow a more realistic assessment of the survival space in the cab. The expert from the Russian Federation did not oppose the proposal, however, he stated that he preferred a linear and geometric assessment criteria of the survival space (as presently found in UN Regulation No. 33) rather than using a dummy. Finally, GRSP agreed to remove the square brackets from the text of ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/24 and adopted it not amended. The secretariat was requested to submit ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/24 to WP.29 and AC.1, for consideration and vote at their June 2013 sessions as draft Supplement 2 to the 02 series of amendments and as Supplement 1 to the 03 series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 29.

31. The expert from France gave a presentation (GRSP-52-12) to show the risks of child ejection in roll-over accidents. Accordingly, he introduced GRSP-52-11-Rev.1 (amending ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/21). He clarified that the proposal would not prevent the installation of shield systems in favour of harness systems to restrain the child on the seat, but rather it would introduce improved overturning test procedures to reduce the risk of child ejection. GRSP adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/21 as amended by Annex V to this report. [Please note that Annex V is corrected by document GRSP/52/Corr.1.] The secretariat was requested to submit the proposal to WP.29 and AC.1, for consideration and vote at their June 2013 sessions as draft Supplement 7 to the 04 series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 44.

32. The experts from France, the Netherlands and the Russian Federation withdrew ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/22, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/15 and GRSP-52-04 respectively.

33. Referring to the decision of the Administrative Committee for the coordination of Work (AC.2) at the November 2012 session (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1099, para. 12), the expert from Germany informed GRSP about the action undertaken by the Type Approval Authority concerning the belt guide device. He explained that a letter drafted by his Administration was sent to the Type Approval Authority of Hungary requesting for the withdrawal of the type approval of the belt guide device granted as a child restraint system according to UN Regulation No. 44. Meanwhile, he informed GRSP that his Administration also notified the Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Consumer Products of the European Union (RAPEX) of a dangerous product. The expert from Hungary agreed to keep informed GRSP about the decision of the Type Approval Authority of his country on this issue.

34. The expert from OICA introduced ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/16, superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/7, proposing requirements for vehicles with automatically activated door locking systems. GRSP agreed to remove the square brackets from paragraph 5.2.4.1. and adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/16, not amended. The secretariat was requested to submit it to WP.29 and AC.1 at their June 2013 sessions for consideration and vote as draft Supplement 4 to the 02 series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 94.

35. The expert from Germany introduced GRSP-52-24 to show the outcome of the frontal impact and compatibility assessment research (FIMCAR) as part of the seventh programme of research of the European Union. He indicated that amongst the candidate barriers to assess compatibility, the full-width deformable barrier (FWDB) showed better results for the time being.

36. The expert from France, Chair of the informal working group on Frontal Impact, introduced the last progress report of the group (GRSP-52-25). He reiterated that the informal working group was considering existing results from ongoing research programmes on this matter at the international level (i.e. FIMCAR) and that as a follow‐up to these results, the group would propose an amendment to UN Regulation No. 94 by the May 2014 session of GRSP. Accordingly, he indicated three possible scenarios amending the UN Regulation:

(a) no change to the current requirements (benefits of 2.0 percent or less of all vehicle occupants Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI));
(b) full width barrier (FW) test added to the offset deformable barrier test (ODB) (benefits of 5 to 12 per cent of all occupants KSI); and
(c) FW test and replace ODB test with Progressive Deformable Barrier (PDB) test (benefits of 7 to 14 per cent of all occupants KSI).

37. Furthermore, for scenario (b) and © he added that the inclusion of a FWDB would lead only to slightly increased benefits (0.3 to 0.8 percent as stated in the FIMCAR final report) and the airbag triggering time more linked to real world. However, he concluded that the option of a Full Width Rigid Barrier (FWRB), even if it would introduce slightly lower benefits, this option would give higher harmonization potentials (Australia, Japan, and United States). Finally, he asked GRSP experts to clearly indicate their barrier preference to better focus the efforts of the informal working group. The expert from Germany stated that due to the time constraints for the first phase of improving UN Regulation No. 94, a FWRB could be the solution for Phase 1 and the FWDB would remain as a candidate for the Phase 2.

38. The majority of GRSP experts were not in a position to provide such an indication and agreed to resume discussion on this matter at its May 2013 session, awaiting the results of a cost benefit analysis for both FWDB and FWRB prepared by the informal working group.

39. The expert from FIA Foundation informed GRSP about the results of third Latin American New Car Assessment Programme (LANCAP) recently held (GRSP-52-13). He gave a presentation (GRSP-52-29) informing that as a conclusion of the third phase of the programme, LANCAP was recommending all Latin American governments to make the requirements of UN Regulation No. 94 mandatory for all cars sold in their markets.

40. The expert from OICA introduced ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/17 superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/9, on identical requirements for vehicles with automatically activated door locking systems for UN Regulation No. 95 (see para. 34 above). GRSP adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/17 as amended by Annex VI to this report. The secretariat was requested to submit it to WP.29 and AC.1 at their June 2013 sessions for consideration and vote as draft Supplement 3 to the 03 series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 95.

41. The expert from Germany, on behalf of the Chair of the group of interested experts on REESS, introduced the latest status report of this group, its revised terms of reference and a new proposed mandate as an informal working group (GRSP-52-05). He clarified that these actions would be needed to cover electric vehicles of category L into UN Regulation No. 100 and to replace the expired informal working group on Electric Safety (ELSA). The expert from Japan made a presentation (GRSP-52-09) proposing to establish a new UN Regulation for vehicle category L, rather than amending UN Regulation No. 100, because of its different structure and safety concept from categories M/N.

42. Finally, GRSP agreed to establish the new informal working group and to seek endorsement of WP.29 at its March 2013 session. Accordingly, GRSP adopted the terms of reference of the group, contained in GRSP-52-05 and reproduced in Annex VII to this report supporting this request.

43. No new information was provided for this agenda item.

44. With reference to the discussion under agenda item 4(b) (see paras. 8 and 9), GRSP agreed to defer discussion on this agenda item to its May 2013 session.

45. GRSP agreed to defer discussion on this agenda item awaiting the outcome of the informal working group.

46. GRSP noted that WP.29 at its November 2012 session referred WP.29-158-22 to GRSP concerning further amendments and correction to the draft Regulation on Enhanced Child Restraint Systems (ECRS), adopted during that session (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2012/53 and Corr.1). GRSP noted that further changes were needed (GRSP-52-16 and GRSP-52-20, superseding WP.29-158-22). GRSP agreed to resume consideration of this subject at its May 2013 session awaiting a consolidated proposal of amendments and to keep GRSP-52-16 and GRSP-52-20 as a reference in the agenda.

47. GRSP also noted a correction to a footnote (WP.29-158-27) in the new UN Regulation, referring to the informal working group website as the temporary repository for the drawing and specifications of Q dummies (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1099, see para. 58). GRSP did not propose any change to WP.29-158-27 and endorsed the use of such specifications for application purposes of the UN Regulation. GRSP endorsed final approval of WP.29-158-27 at the March 2013 session of WP.29.

48. GRSP considered ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/18, proposing test conditions to have the same stringency level in the acceleration and deceleration sled lateral impact tests. GRSP agreed to remove the square brackets from para. 7.1.3.1.3.4. and adopted it not amended. The secretariat was requested to submit ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/18 to WP.29 and AC.1 for consideration and vote at their March 2013 sessions, as draft Supplement 1 to the new UN Regulation.

49. The expert from France, Chair of the informal working group on Child Restraint Systems, introduced the latest status report of his group (GRSP-52-17). He clarified that the group was working on Phase 2, to develop provisions for non-integral ISOFIX CRS (child restrained by adult safety belts). The expert from EC expressed his preference to dedicate the new UN Regulation only to ISOFIX CRS and UN Regulation No. 44 to CRS of other kinds. Also the expert from Germany made similar comments and suggested the removal of ISOFIX provisions from UN Regulation No. 44, to be dedicated only to non ISOFIX CRS.

54. GRSP recommended the Chairs of its informal working groups to send comments to the expert from EC concerning the provisional list of acronyms (GRSP-51-03) he prepared and complete it with those that were missing. GRSP agreed to resume consideration on this subject at its May 2013 session.