Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that Honda received a $70 million fine from regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The fine—the maximum allowed by law—comes after an investigation determined the company failed to notify consumers and regulators about death and injuries involving their vehicles in a “timely manner”. In the agency’s ruling, half of the money—$35 million—will be dedicated to addressing Honda’s consumer death and injury claims.

At the end of 2014, Honda admitted there were approximately 1,729 instances of death and injury in an 11-year period that the company failed to report. Under federal regulations, data associated with these incidents should have been sent to regulators as what is called an “early warning report”: notifications critical to identifying trends in potentially dangerous vehicles. It is now believed that Honda’s reporting failures concern Takata Corporation airbags, which have been notoriously documented to propel shrapnel into passenger cabins during some collisions.

Industrywide Record of Failure

Honda is just one of several automotive companies to receive large fines in the past year due to safety failures. Some of these include:

• General Motors – fined $35 million for ignition issues
• Hyundai – fined $17.4 million for taking too long to recall vehicles
• Ferrari – fined $3.5 million for failure to report fatal incidents

Unfortunately, car buyers are routinely misled by manufacturers and dealerships concerning many of these issues. However, California law states consumers have the opportunity to seek legal recourse in the case of a compliance failure like Honda’s.

At Norman Taylor & Associates, our California lemon law attorneys help consumers seek refunds or replacements. In our 50 years of collective experience, we have handled in excess of 10,000 cases and successfully obtained over $100 million in refunds.

For more information, please contact us to schedule your free consultation.