Honda may face record fine for under-reporting US claims

Its failure in reporting to regulators more than 1,700 claims of injury or death involving its cars could lead to penalty of US$35m

Published Tue, Nov 25, 2014 · 09:50 PM

    Tokyo

    HONDA Motor Co said it failed to report more than 1,700 claims of injury or death involving its cars to US regulators, a violation that would be one of the biggest in history and could lead to a fine of US$35 million.

    In a synopsis of an internal review filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Honda on Monday blamed the under-reporting on "inadvertent data entry or computer programming errors" that spanned 11 years. NHTSA hasn't made the audit documents public yet as it continues an investigation. "The audit identifies difficult facts where we did not meet our obligations," Rick Schostek, executive vice-president of Honda North America, told reporters. There will be retraining and staffing changes, he said.