The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently imposed a fine to the Japanese auto parts manufacturer Takata to the sum of $200 million. The fine is the largest penalty the US regulator imposed on a single company.
The fine was imposed after federal regulators discovered that Takata did not follow the necessary security protocols in manufacturing its air bags, according to Rapid News Network. NHTSA reported that the propellant used on Takata air bags can explode and spew metal inside the car's cabin, potentially harming and even cause death to those inside.
NHTSA Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement, "For years, Takata has built and sold defective inflators. It refused to acknowledge that they were defective. Delay, misdirection and refusal to acknowledge the truth allowed a serious problem to become a massive crisis."
According to Channel News Asia, the Takata air bag issue has affected more than 19 million vehicles in the United States, and potentially millions more worldwide. The problem has plagued at least 12 car manufacturer and each of them were forced to issue recall orders in order to fix the problem.
Not only is Takata facing the largest penalty imposed by the NHTSA but its stocks and ratings have fell heavily over the course of the scandal. Toyota, Honda and Mazda have all declared that they are pulling out Takata made air bags from being integrated into their cars.
Following the pullout from three large car manufacturers, Takata shares took a dive and fell 40 percent within a single week. Since the scandal was discovered in 2014, Takata's shares have in total fell by more than 75 percent.