U.S. federal safety regulators have slapped a $3 million (€2.3 million) fine on BMW North America for delays in reporting and not providing enough information on its safety defects and recalls. The fine will be paid into the Treasury Department’s General Fund.
Automakers are required by law to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) within five business days of identifying a safety defect or noncompliance and to promptly conduct a recall.
The NHTSA said it launched an investigation on the matter back in December of 2010 examining 16 BMW recalls from that year. The safety agency said it found evidence of a number of instances where BMW did not report a known safety defect within five days while the filings were also missing important details.
“BMW appears to maintain a practice, by design or habit, in which it provides little information in its initial filings,” said the NHTSA.
“For example, of the 16 Part 573 reports BMW filed this year [2010], in only 6 was it able to tell the agency the number of vehicles affected by the defect or noncompliance and expected to be recalled. In only 5 recalls reports was BMW able to supply any chronology of principal events, and only 1 of these 5 chronologies met the bare minimum for such a chronology,” the agency said in its report.
The NHTSA added that it took BMW over 30 days, on average, to supply required information, “including such fundamental information as population figures.”
As part of the settlement, BMW North America also agreed to make internal changes to its recall decision-making process.
“It’s critical to the safety of the driving public that defects and recalls are reported in short order,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. “NHTSA expects all manufacturers to address automotive safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner.”
