NHTSA fines Takata for not cooperating

Federal safety regulators levied fines of $14,000 a day on Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp. for not cooperating with the Department of Transportation’s investigation into defective air bag inflators that have killed at least six people and injured more than 60 others in the U.S and overseas.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered Takata to provide pertinent information about the flaws in its air bag system. Some inflators, which use an explosive charge to quickly inflate the air bag to provide a cushion for vehicle occupants in a crash, are blowing apart, sending shrapnel into the cabin.

Most recently, Honda said an air bag inflator in a 2002 Accord exploded Jan. 18 in Houston, killing a 35-year-old man.

Regulators said Takata flooded the agency with 2.4 million pages of documents but failed to provide any type of index or guide, which is required by law and vital for a speedy investigation.

“Safety is a shared responsibility and Takata’s failure to fully cooperate with our investigation is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Anthony Foxx, U.S. Transportation secretary, said in announcing the fines. “For each day that Takata fails to fully cooperate with our demands, we will hit them with another fine.”

In a letter to the air bag manufacturer, NHTSA chief counsel O. Kevin Vincent said “Takata is neither being forthcoming with the information it is legally obligated to supply, nor is it being cooperative in aiding NHTSA’s ongoing investigation of a potentially serious safety defect.”

He said the agency plans to take depositions of Takata employees based in the U.S. and Japan.

Takata has rejected demands it recall its air bags, which are in millions of cars dating back more than a decade. Automakers are recalling the cars, but some repair efforts have been stymied by a lack of replacement parts.

Honda is the most affected and has urged owners of its cars to bring them to dealers to have the inflator replaced.

Approximately 6 million Honda vehicles in the U.S. have Takata air bags, and about 2.8 million have officially been recalled.

Though Honda is Takata’s biggest customer, air bag flaws haven’t been limited to that maker. Roughly 11 million vehicles in the U.S. have been affected, including models from Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford and BMW.

A lawsuit against Takata and Honda filed last year in federal court in Los Angeles by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro seeks class-action status and claims Takata cut corners to build cheaper air bags and that Honda purchased the parts to slice its manufacturing expenses.

The Berman complaint claims Takata knew of the deadly defect at least 13 years ago, first seeing the problem in an Isuzu vehicle but failing to take action.