NHTSA Says Fiat Chrysler Under-reported Deaths and Injuries

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says the automaker Fiat Chrysler under-reported a “significant” number of deaths, injuries and legal claims that it was required to reveal to regulators

NHTSA announced the underreporting after Fiat Chrysler said it had discovered “deficiencies” in its system for reporting defects under the Tread Act, a law that specifies the information car makers must submit to regulators, CNBC reports.

The federal regulator said this early warning reporting by automakers is vital. The agency is responsible for examining records of the 33,000 deaths that occur annually on U.S. roads to determine which ones are caused by vehicle defects. NHTSA has heightened its enforcement of safety rules for vehicle defects in the wake of the controversy over the massive recall of General Motors vehicles equipped with faulty ignition switches, CNBC reports. Fiat Chrysler has had a series of clashes with NHTSA and, in an unusual step, the agency held a public hearing in July to investigate Fiat Chrysler’s handling of a series of potentially dangerous defects.

Following a 2009 government-managed bankruptcy, Chrysler was taken over by Italian automaker Fiat, forming a new company. In 2013, the company was involved in a protracted dispute with NHTSA over whether to recall 2.7 million older Jeep models that NHTSA said were prone to exploding in rear-end collisions.

Under the Tread Act, manufacturers must report to NHTSA within five days of the end of each month any claims that their vehicles have been responsible for crashes resulting in deaths or serious injuries. NHTSA said it had warned Fiat Chrysler in July that it had found an apparent discrepancy in its early warning data.

“FCA [Fiat Chrysler] has informed NHTSA that in investigating that discrepancy, it has found significant under-reported notices and claims of deaths, injuries and other information required as part of the early warning reporting system,” NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind said. Rosekind said the under-reporting traces to “a number of problems” with Fiat Chrysler’s systems for gathering and reporting the monthly data, CNBC says. “This represents a significant failure to meet a manufacturer’s safety responsibilities,” according to Rosekind.

Early warning reporting data will often include incidents that, when more closely examined, turn out not to reflect a vehicle defect or systemic problem that requires a vehicle call. But at the July hearing, NHTSA questioned Fiat Chrysler about possible under-reporting of problems with vehicle transmissions and tire faults at high speed.

Under an earlier consent agreement with NHTSA, Fiat Chrysler is supposed to more closely monitor safety issues and it was this “heightened scrutiny” that led to the identification of “deficiencies” in reporting, CNBC writes.

Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer said the announcement reflected the increased scrutiny of automakers’ safety records. NHTSA has heightened its safety enforcement. The agency has faced criticism for its decade-long failure to detect the problem with ignition switches in General Motors compact cars. The switches have been deemed responsible for at least 124 deaths and numerous injuries. Last year GM recalled 2.6 million cars potentially equipped with the defective switches.

 

from Parker Waichman http://www.yourlawyer.com/blog/nhtsa-says-fiat-chrysler-under-reported-deaths-and-injuries/