35. GRSP considered ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2008/10, tabled by the expert from India. The proposal received some comments. The expert from India volunteered to prepare a revised proposal for consideration at the next GRSP session.

36. GRSP considered ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2007/12 (tabled by Italy and France). The EC expert did not support the proposal and requested to insert a time limit for the exemption for vehicles having an integrated saloon up to 10 seats (M3 of class III or B) with side-facing seats grouped in the rear, as in the EU Directive. Taking into account the comments received, GRSP adopted GRSP-43-30 as reproduced in Annex VI to this report. The secretariat was requested to submit the proposal to WP.29 and AC.1, for consideration at their November 2008 sessions, as draft 08 series of amendments to Regulation No. 17.

GRSP-43-30 | Proposal for draft amendments to Regulation No. 17 According to the European Community’s participation in the revised 1958 Agreement, the UNECE Regulations have become alternatives to the technical annexes of the corresponding EU Directives. This proposed amendment is aimed at reinforcing consistency between the UNECE Regulations and the EU Directives.

GRSP/2007/12 | Proposal for draft amendments to Regulation No. 17 Text prepared by Italy and France in order to align the UNECE Regulation No. 17 with the corresponding European Directive 2005/39/EC.

37. GRSP welcomed ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2008/11, tabled by the expert from the EC, regarding the transposition of GTR No. 7 (Head restraints) into Regulation No. 17. The proposal received some comments. The expert from the Netherlands urged a solution for the head restraints height issue, regretting that it was delayed several times in the past. The expert from Japan gave a presentation (GRSP-43-20) and introduced GRSP-43-05 intended to allow Contracting Parties to transpose into their national or regional law alternative test procedures for the dynamic assessment of head restraints.

38. The proposal from Japan received a general support by GRSP. The expert from the EC solicited written comments in order to have a reasonable assumption that his draft proposal would reflect the expert expectations. GRSP endorsed the request by the expert from the EC and invited all GRSP experts to provide the secretariat in due time with proposals complementing ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2008/11. GRSP requested the secretariat to distribute GRSP-43-05 with an official symbol at the next GRSP session.

GRSP-43-05 | Proposed amendments to document GRSP/2008/11

GRSP-43-20 | Proposal for ECE R17-08 Dynamic Backset Option with BioRID II

GRSP/2008/11 | Alignment of Regulation No. 17 to the draft GTR on head restraints

39. The expert from the United States of America informed that a recent report from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) was introduced in the last Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) meeting, which claimed unexpected difficulties to correlate real-world data with the IIHS ratings ( Relationship of Dynamic Seat Ratings to Real-World Neck Injury Rates).