NHTSA hits Takata with $ 14,000 daily fine for airbags
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The U.S. government announced this morning that it is fining Japan-based auto-safety-equipment company Takata $ 14,000 a day for refusing to cooperate with a probe of its faulty airbags by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Takata has refused to recall cars with the airbags, which can inflate explosively, tearing loose from their mountings and blowing shrapnel into occupants. And it has dragged its feet responding to government demands for information.
The U.S. government is adding more than 3 million vehicles to a rare warning about faulty air bags that have the potential to kill or injure drivers or passengers in a crash. Newslook
At least five deaths are linked to the bags.
“Takata is neither being forthcoming with the information that it is legally obligated to supply, nor is it being cooperative in aiding NHTSA’s ongoing investigation of a potentially serious safety defect,” the agency said in a later dated today to a representative of Takata Holdings, the U.S. unit of the big Japan company.
The fine was announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. NHTSA is a unit of Transportation.
“Safety is a shared responsibility and Takata’s failure to fully cooperate with our investigation is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Foxx said. “For each day that Takata fails to fully cooperate with our demands, we will hit them with another fine.”
He said Takata is one of the “bad actors” in the safety universe.
“Late last year, NHTSA issued two Special Orders to Takata requiring the company to provide documentation and other material relating to the agency’s ongoing investigation. Takata has not fully cooperated with the investigation,” the agency said.
The fine is the maximum $ 7,000 per day for violating each of the two special orders.
NHTSA also s, in effect, advertising for Takata whistle-blowers and promising to protect those who contact it to provide damning information. There have been reports that Takata destroyed or falsified reports that a propellant it used in airbag inflators was dangerous. Takata has said those reports are false.
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