The inquiry is said to be looking into accusations from the advocacy group Center for Auto Safety, which claims the company failed to report numerous fatalities and injuries due to the defective airbag components manufactured by supplier Takata, according to a Bloomberg report.
The company has allegedly admitted to delaying reports of verbal claims in its filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, potentially leading the agency to underestimate the scope of the problem, though the controversial practice has been defended as compliant with federal reporting guidelines.
“It is our understanding that some manufacturers choose to include these types of verbal claims, and that these constitute the majority of the injury-and-death claims that they report to the NHTSA,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this practice accounts for the vast majority of the difference between the total number of injury-and-death claims reported by Honda compared to certain other manufacturers.”
CAS points to a wide margin between Honda’s Early Warning Reports to the NHTSA and the filings by other automakers. In 2013, for example, Toyota submitted 1,774 EWR reports while Honda filed just 28.
The NHTSA is also under fire for not spotting the discrepancies earlier and actively pushing the automakers for more information regarding the airbag failures.
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