Transportation Secretary Calling Auto Execs to Washington

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said Tuesday that he plans to call a meeting in Washington with auto industry CEOs to talk about repeated failures to meet required standards for vehicle-related fatalities.

Foxx’s announcement came after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said, also on Tuesday, that Fiat Chrysler Automotive vastly under-reported deaths and injuries associated with more than 11 million recalled vehicles.

“We need to have confidence the information we get is real and accurate information,” Foxx said, ABC News reports.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind called FCA’s failure to accurately report the deaths and injuries a “significant failure” and said the automaker could face additional fines. In July, FCA agreed to pay fines of up to $105 million for its handling of the recall issue.

“FCA has informed NHTSA that in investigating that discrepancy, it has found significant under-reported notices and claims of deaths, injuries and other information required as part of the Early Warning Reporting system,” Rosekind said in a statement. “Preliminary information suggests that this under-reporting is the result of a number of problems with FCA’s systems for gathering and reporting EWR data. This represents a significant failure to meet a manufacturer’s safety responsibilities.”

It’s unclear how many deaths and injuries weren’t reported, or how the lapse occurred.

Fines over reporting requirements have also been assessed against Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, General Motors, Ford and others. The NHTSA requires automakers to report vehicle-related deaths so it can track trends, detect safety problems and order recalls if necessary.

Fiat Chrysler pledged to cooperate with the NHTSA to ensure the reporting problem doesn’t recur.