U.S. Fines Takata for Not Cooperating in Airbag Probe

Beginning today, Takata Corp. faces fines of $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate with a U.S. probe into defective airbag inflators implicated in at least six fatalities.

U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says Takata's failure is "unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began an investigation last year into exploding Takata inflators that prompted 11 carmakers to recall some 14 million vehicles in the U.S. in the past two years alone. At the time, the agency warned such recalls could expand significantly depending upon the root cause of the problem.

NHTSA complains that Takata has flooded it with some 2.4 million pages of documents but did not as ordered include descriptions that explain their content. The agency also cites Takata's conduct on a second, unspecified issue earlier this week.

Takata insists it has been cooperating. But NHTSA Chief Counsel Kevin Vincent says the company has been neither forthcoming nor cooperative. The agency has threatened to depose Takata executives and bring in the U.S. Dept. of Justice unless it gets what it wants.