TRIUMPH has been hit with a $2.9million penalty for failing to meet Safety Act reporting requirements by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US.

The case stems from a US recall last year, when 1,368 2012-2013 Street Triple Rs were returned to dealers to fix a defect in which four bolts holding cable guides to either side of the headstock could work loose, restricting the steering lock and potentially causing an accident. The US recall was announced in September, but the same issue had been addressed on UK bikes with a recall as far back as the June 10 2013 – some 15 months earlier.

As a result, the NHTSA has hit Triumph with a consent order incorporating an immediate $1.4million penalty and required an additional $500,000 to be spent meeting a set of requirements to improve its safety practices. It’s also added a further $1 million suspended fine that will become due if Triumph violates the consent order or any other Safety Act violations emerge.

‘Manufacturers must comply with their reporting obligations. The law requires it, and public safety demands it,’ said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. ‘When companies fail to meet those obligations, we will hold them accountable.’

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said: ‘Today’s enforcement action penalises past violations, and it promotes the proactive safety culture manufacturers must adopt if they are to reduce safety defects and identify them more quickly than they occur.’

According to the NHTSA, Triumph admitted that it violated the Safety Act by failing to file quarterly reports on safety recalls in a timely manner, failing to furnish the NHTSA with copies of notices, service bulletins and other communications sent to more than one manufacturer, distributor, dealer, owner or purchaser as required by law, and by failing to submit accurate early warning reports.

The full NHTSA report on the incident suggests that Triumph – clearly aware of the issue in June 2013 – did start to remedy the problem in America at the same time as in other territories, but thanks to misunderstandings and miscommunications, the official recall was delayed.

A Triumph spokesman told Visordown: ‘Triumph Motorcycles entered into a consent order with the NHTSA. Triumph worked cooperatively with NHTSA and has committed to  implement new procedures in order to ensure full compliance with NHTSA reporting requirements.

‘Triumph remains committed to the manufacture of high quality motorcycles.’

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