Tardiness in responding to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall is costing GM’s cross-town rival Ford $165 million in penalties, accompanying a consent order issued by the Administration.
The NHTSA says Ford failed both to provide complete info on a defective rearview camera and to recall the vehicle models affected by the defect in a “timely” fashion, leading to the current fine.
Ford will be obliged to fork over the money in three payments, the first amounting to $65 million. A second payment of $55 million has been deferred and will need to be paid later, while $45 million goes to “performance obligations.” Sophie Shulman, a deputy administrator of the NHTSA, described the situation by saying, “when manufacturers fail to prioritize the safety of the American public and meet their obligations under federal law, NHTSA will hold them accountable.”
The penalty comes after the Administration investigated Ford and discovered it was out of compliance with the speed of its recall and the thoroughness of information it provided as required by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Ford Authority reports that the fine is the second biggest ever, eclipsed only by the air bag consent order to Takata, which amounted to $200 million.
Beyond the hefty monetary penalty, the NHTSA also laid out a series of obligations Ford will need to meet in order to avoid more fines from the NHTSA. These include:
- Developing and deploying new “safety data analytics infrastructure”
- Create a “document interface platform” that will collect and preserve all of the NHTSA and Blue Oval information about investigations into the defective rearview camera recall
- Construct a laboratory to test “low voltage electronics”
- Improve traceability of all components used in its vehicles
- Review all of its recalls during the previous three years and reissue them as new recalls if they found not to be comprehensive enough
- Examine and improve its recall process, including improving its information analysis
- Speed up the process of issuing recalls and share its information more quickly and thoroughly
- Update its safety compliance policies
- Properly maintain its VIN look-up tool
For the next three years, the NHTSA and an independent third party will monitor Ford’s compliance with the order. Meetings between Ford and NHTSA representatives will occur quarterly, and the Administration has the option to extend the order by one extra year if it feels this is necessary.
Comments
Let’s be honest with ourselves, all Ford has to do is hold this up in court until January when NHTSA is fully dissolved because of “efficiency reasons”.
Car regulation is going out the window folks. Enjoy!
Sure, bust the b___s of a company that, historically, has contributed so much to the US industrialization of the 20th century and built the aircraft that allowed our nation to gain victory over the Nazis and Japan during WW2. I, too, hope the new administration disbands them or at least neuters them.
Fines are a Tax Write-off so, so what ? NHTSA is another example of a Government Bureaucracy run by UNELECTED Bureaucrats with little or no oversight or control by voters. That needs to be changed NOW and their constant “mandates” about “required” equipment being added to Cars/trucks has driven MSRP prices to astronomical heights for the average American.
Ntsb run amuck?