Takata, a company that pulled in $1,268,556,432 in revenues in the fourth quarter alone of FY2014, is now being fined $14,000 a day for not fully cooperating with NHTSA in its investigation into why Takata made airbags that could kill people. Everything is terrible.
The fine comes from Takata's failure to "fully cooperate" with NHTSA's investigation into exploding airbags that have killed at least six people. NHTSA asked Takata to send them a giant heap of documents about the airbags and answer questions under oath, and while Takata did so, they failed to include descriptions that explain the contents of said giant heap (2.4 million pages.)
Take it from here, Automotive News:
That issue, "coupled with Takata's conduct earlier this week on a separate matter related to the agency's ongoing investigation, we have concluded that Takata is neither being forthcoming with the information that it is legally obligated to supply, nor is it being cooperative in aiding NHTSA's ongoing investigation of a potentially serious safety defect," Vincent said in the letter.
The meaning of Vincent's reference to Takata's conduct "earlier this week" is unclear.
Takata will face the fine each day until they address these problems with NHTSA's request. Automakers can be fined up to $7,000 a day for not meeting the requirements of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act, and Takata is being hit with two fines here, hence the $14,000.
There's no word on whether or not NHTSA plans to issue more sad excuses for "fines" to Takata in regards to the documents they allegedly destroyed, rather than just the documents they refuse to produce.
Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx today renewed his call to increase industry fine caps to $300 million, up from the current $35 million, but that's probably not enough.
Photo credit: AP