Honda May Have to Pay Penalties for Seat Belt Problems

08/19/96

USA Today has reported that Federal safety regulators plan to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to levy civil penalties against Honda Motor Company for allegedly withholding information about faulty seat belts in cars made between 1986 and 1991.

The allegations are connected to last year's government mandated recall of 8.9 million vehicles outfitted with faulty seat belts supplied by Takata Corporation. The seat belts could come open unexpectedly, or fail to latch or unlatch. Honda made over 3 million of the recalled cars, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that Honda knew about the safety problem before a government investigation was launched in 1994.

Federal safety law requires carmakers to notify the government when they become aware of safety problems in their vehicles.

The NHTSA's allegations against Honda are based on the fact that Honda, unlike the other carmakers involved in the recall, issued a lifetime warranty on their seat belts. Honda therefore had claims records that showed how many owners reported problems with the seat belts.

Honda told the NHTSA that the warranty claims were not unusual, and that the greater number of claims resulted from its specific and unique seat belt warranty.

Honda told USA Today that the company had not officially heard about the NHTSA's plans to ask the Justice Department to assess civil penalties.

Honda said that owners of only 600,000 of the three million plus cars they recalled last year have brought their cars in to have the seat belt problem fixed.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel