Honda Motor allegedly failed to notify the United States Safety Regulators and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of about 1,729 claims of deaths and injuries related to serious accidents involved in their vehicles since 2003. The Japanese automaker claimed that its count of underreported claim were from a third-party audit.
In September 2014, Honda contracted a third-party auditor to look into some inaccuracies in their internal tracking system for the deaths and injuries. From the underreported accidents, eight of them were related to Takata air bags that malfunctioned. One of them died and this brought the issue to the attention of NHTSA.
The figure increased two times from the actual number of accidents involving their vehicles. Thus, the total number of accidents amounted to 2,843. This is more than the reported cases of only 1,114 that was given to the NHTSA.
The U.S. branch of Honda Motors was able to report to an order from NHTSA last November 3, 2014. They are asking to the company to provide and explain the reason why they were not able to provide accurate data and conform to its legal obligation to report all injuries and deaths that involve their air bags and vehicles.
All auto companies and automakers are required bu the NHTSA to report all accidents especially those that involve their vehicles malfunctioning. The agency can fine the company as much as $35 million if they were not able to report the data in a timely manner.
A statement from Rick Schosek, the executive vice president of Honda North America was released. "The audit identifies difficult facts about where we did not meet our obligations. At Honda, we acknowledge this problem as our management's responsibility."
Meanwhile, the company is also facing other lawsuits which involve their customers who were injured or was killed by the air bags in Honda cars. Apparently, the air bags ruptured during the crash and it flew shrapnel into the passenger cabin. As a result, Honda identified 5 million vehicles that are affected by the malfunctioning Takata air bags.
They released a report that they are taking steps to correct their shortcoming and promised to repair their system to avoid the same mistake again.