NHTSA Awards Honda $70 Million Fine
This 2002 Civic is one of many vehicles being recalled by Honda, which received a $70 million fine for underreporting claims
In addition to a five-star rating for the 2015 Fit, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also awarded Honda a $70 million fine, which the company earned by “failing to report deaths, injuries, and certain warranty claims to the federal government.” The Japanese automaker got hit with the NHTSA’s maximum fine of $35 million… twice: Once for failing to report death and injury claims, and once for failing to report warranty and dissatisfaction claims.
The total $70 million fine represents the largest fine every paid by an automaker as a result of an NHTSA investigation. (However, don’t expect that record to stand forever, since GM loves a challenge).
From 2003 to 2014, Honda failed to report 1,729 death and injury claims (most of them relating to exploding Takata airbags), a shortsighted decision that has now totally blown up in their faces.
“The first rule of Honda death and injury claims is you don’t talk about Honda death and injury claims”
“We have resolved this matter and will move forward to build on the important actions Honda has already taken to address our past shortcomings in early warning reporting,” said Rick Schostek, executive vice president of Honda North America, in a statement released today. “We continue to fully cooperate with NHTSA to achieve greater transparency and to further enhance our reporting practices.”
Honda announced a nationwide recall of vehicles with faulty Takata airbags last month. To find out if your car, truck or SUV is affected, click here.
Patrick Grieve was born in Southwestern Ohio and has lived there all of his life, with the exception of a few years spent getting a Creative Writing degree in Southeastern Ohio. He loves to take road trips, sometimes to places as distant as Northeastern or even Northwestern Ohio. Patrick also enjoys old movies, shopping at thrift stores, going to ballgames, writing about those things, and watching Law & Order reruns. He just watches the original series, though, none of the spin-offs. And also only the ones they made before Jerry Orbach died. Season five was really the peak, in his opinion. See more articles by Patrick.