Honda Fined USD 70 Million By NHTSA

Honda, the Japanese carmaker has been fined USD 70 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) because of insufficient employee training and software glitches.

This fine was imposed to Honda for also not reporting accidents and warranty data over the past 10 years. This is the largest amount the NHTSA has ever fined.

Honda had responded to a special order from NHTSA, admitting the violation of the TREAD act. This law requires carmakers to notify and submit quarterly reports of crashes, injuries, deaths, warranty claims, and other associated problems with their vehicles.

The Japanese carmaker publicly announced that it failed to report 1,729 fatalities and injuries between 2003 to 2014.

Honda claims that internal software had been discounting few reports when there was no date entered, or when codes indicating certain vehicle problems did not correlate to NHTSA's predefined codes.

Under this special order, Honda has agreed to pay USD 35 million as two separate fines to NHTSA, one for not reporting injuries and deaths (missing reports), and the other for missing warranty claims. Honda will adopt or practice new written procedures henceforth.

The fine imposed on Honda by the NHTSA was nearly double the amount that General Motors had to pay for hiding the ignition switch defects.