With all the negative publicity surrounding the diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen is now under more scrutiny over its death and injury reporting.
According to a Bloomberg report, the company’s death and injury reports to the U.S. government are significantly lower than the average rate of the top 11 companies. The average rate is nine times higher than VW’s.
Although this is not an admission of fraudulent reporting, the very low numbers may be an indication that the company is underreporting its death and injury rates. Honda and Chrysler have both reported injury rates that were lower than the actual numbers, and their rates are still higher than VW’s. Honda was fined $70 million for underreporting their injury and death rates.
The injury and death rate reporting is part of an early warning system for the National Highway Traffic Safety Association in response to the Ford Explorer rollover problem caused by disintegrating Firestone tires.
Bloomberg commissioned the data analysis, which was done by Stout Risius Ross Inc. The analysis took the injury and death reports submitted by the car companies over the last 10 years and compared it to the number of cars sold and still on the road. The final rate is in incidents per million miles.
Volkswagen had a rate of 34 incidents, by far the lowest of the study. The average was 301 incidents, with GM topping the list at 524. Even with the improper numbers, both Honda and Chrysler had rates of 78 and 101, respectively.
Low numbers do not always correlate to improper reporting. Nissan, whose rate matched Honda’s at 78, has complied with all reporting laws and has not been accused of false reporting.
Should the company be found guilty of underreporting injury rates, it would be yet another blow following the diesel emissions scandal, which could end up costing in the billions of dollars in repairs, fines and lost sales.
Check out all of TFLcar’s coverage of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, and watch as TFLcar takes a 2011 VW Jetta TDI on a dyno to find out how much horsepower is lost in “cheat” mode:
