Federal authorities imposed a total of $70 million in fines against Honda Motor Co. for failing to report more than a decade’s worth of deaths, injuries and warranty claims.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the two $35 million fines are being levied.
The first is due to the automaker’s failure to report 1,729 injuries and deaths that occurred between 2003 and 2014 to the NHTSA.
Honda’s second fine is related to its failure to report certain warranty claims and claims under “customer satisfaction campaigns” in that same time period.
“One thing we cannot tolerate, and will not tolerate, is an auto maker failing to report to us any safety issues,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said at a briefing Thursday, Jan. 8.
Honda said the underreporting was due to “inadvertent data entry or computer programming errors.” Along with its fines, the automaker has agreed to increase NHTSA oversight and improve its third-party audits.
“Honda acknowledges that it lacked the urgency needed to correct its problems on a timely basis,” Honda Executive Vice President Rick Schostek said in a November conference call with reporters.
Federal officials said the automaker has agreed to pay the fine, which is the largest penalty ever issued by the agency against an automaker.
“Today’s announcement sends a very clear message to the entire industry that manufacturers have responsibility for the complete and timely reporting of this critical safety information,” said Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“The actions we are requiring will push Honda to significantly raise the bar on the effectiveness of its…reporting program. Our ongoing oversight will ensure compliance and determine if there is cause for additional actions.”
Regulators declined to specify what types of issues Honda did not report. However, the company and other automakers were hit hard last year with millions of recalls related to defective airbags from Japanese company Takata Corp. The airbags are prone to shooting out shrapnel when deployed and have been linked to five deaths worldwide.
Last year, more than 60 million cars were recalled and the NHTSA issued a record amount of more than $126 million in civil penalties.
(With reports from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today)
