Honda Fined $70M By NHTSA For Data Reporting Failures

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Thursday that it would fine Honda $70 million “for failing to report death and injury data in a timely manner.”

Autoblog reports the fine is based on 1,729 incidents over 11 years that were not brought to the attention of the NHTSA via the agency’s Early Warning Reporting system. Further, some of the incidences have still yet to be reported, prompting new administrator Mark Rosekind to send investigators to Honda to retrieve the missing information.

The fine, the largest ever delivered by the agency to an automaker, is composed of two separate $35 million fines, one for the death and injury data, the other for missing warranty claims. The U.S. Department of Justice is considering a criminal investigation into the matter, though nothing has been confirmed thus far.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Qbranch Qbranch on Jan 09, 2015

    So who gets to keep all this money and what exactly do they do with it? Might be nice if the ppl or families allegedly injured by this were recipients of at least part of it...

    • S2k Chris S2k Chris on Jan 09, 2015

      How can one be allegedly injured by a failure of Honda to report it to the government? If I understand this right, it was a failure to report things that already happened, not a failure to report something that could happen. Like " Hey government, Joe Schmo was killed in an accident in a Honda, that makes 200 for the year" not "Ohh, we've got a problem with our cars, if we hide it no one will ever know but more people might die in the future from the seame thing".

  • L'avventura L'avventura on Jan 09, 2015

    Shows you how light GM got off on the ignition switch scandal; 10 year delayed recall with at least 13 dead, and proven cover up of defects, and half the fines compared to Honda's which is mostly to do with the Takata airbag recalls. The government also got $1.2 billion out of Toyota, which after all the drama was largely just floor mats ('mechanical' in NHTSA terms), electrical problems never being discovered even after being investigated by NASA. Moreover, the $300 million fine against Hyundai-Kia for mileage discrepancies. Ford, at the same time, gets off without a single fine. NHTSA clearly doesn't even try to hide their favoritism of American companies. Its understandable to want to strengthen your domestic rivals but its a double-edged sword. Given the US, rightfully, complains against China and other nations for unfairly targeting foreign (largely American) companies for safety issues as a form of protectionism (see VW, McDonalds, KFC, Apple in China), these uneven handling of enforcement by the NHTSA gives ammunition for foreign countries wanting to keep in place their own protectionist enforcement regimes that target American companies.

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    • Mike978 Mike978 on Jan 09, 2015

      The GM fine situation isn`t resolved yet, wasn`t the last fine just an interim step? People did die in the Toyota "mechanical" issue, so that has something to do with it.

  • Aquineas Aquineas on Jan 09, 2015

    I'm surprised it's so low; I always thought this was a much bigger deal than the GM ignition switch issue. It's not like Takata airbags have been used on the two best selling cars (Accord and Camry) for something like the last 15 years or anything like that...

    • See 1 previous
    • Aquineas Aquineas on Jan 09, 2015

      @CJinSD That just seems awfully low to me based on the number of vehicles out there, but what do I know?

  • Mechaman Mechaman on Jan 10, 2015

    Can't blame the UAW for this, so watch it get quiet as Ebola ..

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