本田因漏報安全問題獲鉅額罰單

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has fined Honda Motor $70 million for failing to submit reports of fatal accidents and injuries to the government.

因未就造成人員傷亡的事故向政府提交報告，本田汽車(Honda Motor)被美國國家公路交通安全局(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)處以7000萬美元（約合4.4億元人民幣）的罰款。

It is the largest amount that the safety regulator has ever levied against an automaker. The penalty stems from the automaker’s failure to report 1,729 death and injury claims to the agency for the last 11 years, and its failure to report certain warranty and other claims in the same period.

這是該安全監管機構對汽車生產商開出的最高罰單。本田受罰是因爲在過去11年裏，它未向該機構彙報1729起傷亡索賠，且在同一時期，該公司未彙報某些保修及其他一些索賠。

“Today’s announcement sends a very clear message to the entire industry that manufacturers have responsibility for the complete and timely reporting of this critical safety information,” Mark Rosekind, the new head of the agency, said on Thursday.

“今天的通告向整個行業傳達了一個非常明確的訊息，那就是廠商有責任全面、及時地彙報這類關鍵的安全信息，”國家公路交通安全局新任局長馬克·羅斯金德(Mark Rosekind)週四說。

Under a system called Early Warning Reporting, automakers are required to disclose claims they receive that blame vehicle defects for serious injuries or deaths.

根據儘早預警彙報(Early Warning Reporting)制度的要求，車企應在收到稱車輛缺陷造成了重傷或死亡的索賠後，將其公開。

Honda publicly disclosed in November that it had grossly underreported the number of deaths and injury claims linked to possible defects in its vehicles for more than a decade. An audit, commissioned by Honda, found that the Japanese automaker had not reported 1,729 written claims or notices on injuries or deaths from mid-2003 through mid-2014 — far more than the approximately 900 reports for that period that it did make.

本田於去年11月透露，在超過十年的時間裏，公司大幅漏報了與車輛可能存在的缺陷有關的傷亡索賠數量。本田委託進行的審計發現，從2003年中期一直到2014年中期，這家日本車企漏報了1729起書面傷亡索賠或通知，遠遠超出該公司同一時期彙報的約900起索賠。

A Honda employee identified the problem in 2011, and federal regulators notified Honda of potential underreporting of death and injury claims in 2012, but the car company did not take action until September 2014. In November, after receiving preliminary findings of the audit, the safety agency demanded that Honda submit more information on its reporting. That action came after the Center for Auto Safety, a private advocacy group, accused Honda in an open letter in October of systematically underreporting the Early Warning claims.

本田的一名僱員在2011年發現了這個問題，2012年，聯邦監管機構通知了本田可能少報了傷亡索賠，但該公司直到2014年9月才採取行動。去年11月，在獲得初步審計結果後，該安全監管機構要求本田提交更多有關其彙報事宜的信息。在那之前的10月，私立權利倡導團體汽車安全中心(Center for Auto Safety)在一封公開信中指責本田有組織地漏報了儘早預警制度要求上報的索賠。

“We have resolved this matter and will move forward to build on the important actions Honda has already taken to address our past shortcomings in early warning reporting,” Rick Schostek, executive vice president of Honda North America, said in a statement on Thursday. “We continue to fully cooperate with N.H.T.S.A.”

“我們已經解決了這個問題，並將繼續以本田已經採取的重要行動爲基礎，應對我們過去在儘早預警方面存在的不足，本田北美(Honda North America)的執行副總裁裏克·朔斯特克(Rick Schostek)在週四的一份聲明中說。“我們會繼續與國家公路交通安全局全面合作。”

Honda noted that, of the underreported claims, eight, including one death claim, were related to defective Takata airbags, which can deploy violently and rupture in an accident, sending metal fragments flying toward the driver or passenger instead of protecting them.

本田指出，漏報的索賠中，包括一起死亡索賠在內的八起索賠與高田(Takata)的問題氣囊有關。發生事故時，高田的問題氣囊可能會猛然彈出並破裂，導致金屬碎片飛向駕駛員或乘客，而不是保護它們。

Honda said in a statement that the reporting failures stemmed from data entry, programming and coding errors, as well as a too-narrow and sometimes inaccurate interpretation of regulations.

本田公司發表聲明稱，報告問題是由數據輸入、編程及代碼錯誤，以及對規定進行了過於狹隘、有時甚至是錯誤的解讀造成的。

Anthony Foxx, the secretary of transportation, said it did not matter that Honda said it had not meant to violate the law.

美國運輸部部長安東尼·福克斯(Anthony Foxx)表示，本田自稱並非有意違法是於事無補的。

“Good intentions don’t help the automaker,” he said, adding that the safety agency has asked all automakers to audit their Early Warning reports for compliance.

他說，“善意對車廠是沒什麼幫助的。”他還表示，交通安全局已經要求所有汽車製造商按照規定，對早期預警報告進行審計。

Mr. Foxx said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had alerted the Justice Department to Honda’s reporting problems, but that it would be up to that agency to make a decision about a criminal investigation.

福克斯表示，國家公路交通安全局已經告知司法部本田的報告問題，但最終由司法部決定是否開展刑事調查。

“Seventy million dollars is a start,” said Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida. “But we still need automakers to step up and take care of consumers with defective airbags, and we need regulators to insist on more timely and accurate reporting of possible safety defects.”

“7000萬美元的罰款是一個開始，”佛羅里達州民主黨參議員比爾·尼爾森(Bill Nelson)說。“但我們仍需要汽車製造商加快速度，對擁有問題氣囊的顧客負責，我們也需要監管部督促製造商更加及時、準確地上報潛在的安全缺陷。”

The auto safety agency has had a difficult past year. Last year brought record vehicle recalls and intense scrutiny from lawmakers, safety experts and the news media. A New York Times investigation into the agency’s handling of major safety defects over the last decade found that it often had been slow to identify problems, tentative to act and reluctant to use its full legal arsenal against automakers.

過去一年中，這家汽車安全機構的日子並不好過。去年出現了創紀錄的汽車召回事件，議員、安全專家及新聞媒體密切關注相關問題。《紐約時報》對該機構過去十年處理重大安全缺陷的舉措進行了研究，結果發現它遲遲無法確認問題，採取行動時猶豫不決，而且不願充分利用法律武器，懲罰汽車製造商。

Mr. Rosekind, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, was confirmed as the agency’s administrator in December, almost a year after the resignation of David L. Strickland as the agency’s leader. David J. Friedman led the agency in the interim and took much of the heat aimed at its work during a series of congressional hearings last year that focused on the ever-expanding recalls of Takata-made airbags and faulty ignition switches, which General Motors failed to disclose for more than a decade.

前國家安全運輸委員會(National Transportation Safety Board)成員羅斯金德於去年12月，也就是戴維·L·斯特里克蘭(David L. Strickland)辭去國家公路交通安全局局長一職的一年之後，確認擔任該局局長。在過渡時期主持工作的戴維·J·弗裏德曼(David J. Friedman)因爲該機構在去年一系列國會聽證會期間的工作而飽受批評，聽證會主要關注規模不斷擴大的高田氣囊召回及存在故障的點火開關等問題，通用汽車(General Motors)在十多年裏沒有披露這些問題。

This week, Mr. Rosekind said that the safety regulator was overhauling its recall infrastructure to see how it could be improved and said he wanted more resources, including additional workers, for the agency.

本週，羅斯金德表示，該安全監管機構正在對分管召回工作的部門進行整頓，看看如何改進工作。羅斯金德表示，他希望爲該機構爭取更多資源，包括增加工作人員。

“This is an agency that is so under-resourced,” he said. “It’s more severe than I realized from the outside.”

“這是一個資源極度缺乏的機構，”他說。“比我來這裏任職前估計的情況更嚴重。”