Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Faces $70 Million Fine From NHTSA

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has agreed to pay $70 million in fines to resolve a U.S. investigation into allegations that it failed to disclose vehicle crash death and injury reports.

The settlement is expected to be announced soon by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In September, Fiat Chrysler acknowledged that it had failed to disclose an unspecified number of reports that are required to be submitted to regulators under a 2000 law. At that time, NHTSA called Fiat Chrysler’s reporting omissions a “significant failure.”

Major auto companies are required to electronically submit massive amounts of data involving vehicle crashes, deaths, lawsuits, warranty claims, and other information. The automaker reached a separate $105 million settlement in July with NHTSA over its handling of approximately two dozen recalls covering 11 million vehicles.

This marks the latest fine imposed by the U.S. auto safety agency after it came under harsh criticism from Congress and in a government audit for not being aggressive enough in enforcing safety laws. In a new highway funding law, Congress agreed to give NHTSA additional funding if it implements more reforms outlined by the Transportation Department inspector general. Last month, NHTSA fined Japanese manufacturer Takata $70 million for failing to disclose defects in millions of airbags.

Earlier this year, Fiat Chrysler told NHTSA that it was experiencing problems with its software for extracting information from a company database to submit it, and therefore significantly under-reported death and injury claims as a result. There is no indication that Fiat Chrysler intentionally hid the reports, and there has been no suggestion that NHTSA failed to discover safety defects because of the missing information.

Fiat Chrysler said in September that it “takes this issue extremely seriously, and will continue to cooperate with NHTSA to resolve this matter and ensure these issues do not re-occur.”

The automaker has recalled approximately 11 million vehicles this year in the U.S. in 38 campaigns, marking an all-time record for any automaker. The company has faced scrutiny on many auto safety issues, including its recall of 1.4 million vehicles over hacking concerns after two cybersecurity researchers used the Internet to remotely turn off a Jeep’s engine as it drove. Additionally, the automaker has faced scrutiny over fire risks in its older Jeep SUVs. Fiat Chrysler is required to conduct sweeping training and safety reforms, and it must hold regular meetings with NHTSA.

NHTSA has also fined a number of smaller companies for failing to comply with its reporting requirements, including Ferrari NV and Triumph Motorcycles, for not disclosing early warning reports.

However, the reporting system is said to have some problems. Automakers have 24 broad reporting codes for early warning data, but a government audit this year noted that “an average vehicle may have over 15,000 components.”

“Without detailed guidance, decisions regarding key aspects of early warning reporting data are left to the manufacturers’ discretion, resulting in inconsistent reporting and data that (NHTSA) and vehicle safety advocates consider to be of little use,” the government report indicated.

NHTSA has said that it plans to toughen its early warning reporting rules by June. Additionally, two members of Congress have urged NHTSA to make it easier to make early warning reports available to the public, and want the agency to boost its reporting requirements.