Interpretation ID: 16845.wkm

Mr. Harold E. Hutchings
10 Winslow Road
North Quincy, MA 02171

Dear Mr. Hutchings:

This responds to your letter following up on your earlier request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), relating to this agency's rulemaking actions on antilock braking systems (ABS) for light duty vehicles. I apologize for the delay in responding.

Your letter discusses problems you have encountered obtaining information on ABS. In your FOIA request, you had asked for, among other things, "a report you received from the General Motors Engineers [sic] who reported after extensive investigations the problems with A.B.S. were unresolvable." In response, Ms. Coleman of my staff stated that the agency was unable to locate this specific report. However, she stated that material provided by General Motors Corporation (GM) to the agency pertaining to the ABS rulemaking can be obtained from the agency's Technical Reference Library (which has since been renamed Technical Information Services (TIS)) , and provided the docket number for the ABS action (Docket No. 93-94). According to your letter, you contacted TIS and received a list of commenters and other entries to that docket. You said you then contacted the National Technical Information Service "regarding those numbers" but were informed that you need to provide "proper D.O.T. and other numbers" to obtain the information you seek.

As Ms. Coleman wrote you previously, the agency was not able to locate the GM report in our files. However, all material submitted to the agency by GM pertaining to the ABS rulemaking action is listed on the index you received from TIS. You may obtain copies of any document listed in the index by contacting TIS and referencing the document number shown on the listing. You may contact TIS by visiting, calling or writing to that office at the following address: NHTSA, Room 5108, 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington D.C. 20590.

I hope this information has been helpful.

Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
Enclosures
ref:105
d.6/5/98