Honda admits failing to report deaths, injuries to government as required by law

Honda is admitting that it failed to report more than 1,700 injury and death claims about its vehicles to U.S. safety regulators, a violation of federal law.

The automaker says that it found out about the omissions in 2011, yet it took about three years to take action.

The company says it filed documents detailing the lapses on Monday with regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had demanded an explanation on Nov. 3. The agency said at the time that Honda may have failed to report incidents related to air bags made by Takata Corp. as well as other defective parts.

Honda blamed the lapses on inadvertent data entry and computer programming errors, as well as a misinterpretation of the law. The automaker says it's taking corrective action.