Sept. 30, 2015—The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has accused Fiat Chrysler of underreporting the number of deaths in accidents involving its vehicles, according to a report by USA Today.
This revelation comes two months after Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay fines of up to $105 million for its failure to report recalls quickly and fix vehicles effectively.
Mark Rosekind, NHTSA administrator, pledged in a statement to “take appropriate action after gathering additional information on the scope and causes of this failure,” which indicates that more fine may be possible, according to the report.
Rosekind said NHTSA notified Chrysler of the “apparent discrepancy” in late July, after which the automaker investigated the matter and discovered underreporting of deaths, injuries and other information that the company is legally required to report.
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement that it "promptly notified NHTSA of these issues and committed to a thorough investigation" after discovering the problems in the summer. It pledged "complete remediation.” Fiat Chrysler "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 said in a statement, according to the report.
