NHTSA confirms $70M penalty for FCA death reporting

Confirming an earlier leak, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced a $70 million civil penalty for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ failure to properly report death and injury data.

The company had admitted to deficiencies with its Early Warning Reporting system, which the NHTSA uses to spot potential trends related to safety defects that could warrant recalls.

The automaker has reportedly blamed a problem with its database software. The issue appears to have gone unnoticed for years — since the system was put in place in 2003. The NHTSA first spotted discrepancies in July, as the company was under scrutiny for alleged improprieties related to nearly two dozen recall campaigns.

The EWR penalty has been wrapped into the previous consent order, which involved $105 million in fines. FCA now owes $140 million in cash, while the other $35 million will be deferred and only come due if the company fails to meet its obligations.

“We need FCA and other automakers to move toward a stronger, more proactive safety culture, and when they fall short, we will continue to exercise our enforcement authority to set them on the right path,” said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

The agency has penalized five other companies in the past 14 months for failure to meet EWR requirements. Other violators include Honda, Ferrari, Triumph, Forest River and Spartan Motors.