Honda underreported nearly 2,000 deaths and injuries resulting from accidents in its vehicles since 2003, a third-party audit showed Monday.
Reuters reported via MSN that the Japanese automaker's U.S. arm admitted as much in responding to a Nov. 3 order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The company blamed "various errors related to data entry" and an "overly narrow interpretation" of its legal reporting requirements that it has since remedied.
"The audit identifies difficult facts about where we did not meet our obligations," said Rick Schostek, an executive vice president at Honda North America. "At Honda, we acknowledge this problem as our management’s responsibility."
Over the last six years, Honda has recalled 7.5 million U.S. vehicles over the inflators in its Takata air bags, which can break and spray metal shrapnel into passengers.
The NHTSA continues to send orders to Honda for more information about the air bags, and Honda has responded with the bad news. This week the U.S. Senate also requested more air bag documentation from Takata for future hearings.
"It strains credulity that a sophisticated company like Honda could make so many data-entry errors, coding errors and narrow interpretations of what’s a written claim," Clarence Ditlow, executive director of watchdog group the Center for Auto Safety
told The Wall Street Journal.
His organization has asked the NHTSA to impose the maximum $35 million fine for the reporting infractions. They've also urged the department to refer the case to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.