"We identified it. They went back. It goes much deeper than I think anybody expected," NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind told reports, according to quotes published by The Detroit News.
After receiving notification from the agency of an apparent discrepancy in its early warning reporting (EWR) numbers, FCA admitted to the underreporting and promised to participate in the subsequent investigation.
Rosekind declined to disclose an estimate of how many deaths and injuries were not included in FCA's required EWR reports, though the results promise to be "pretty surprising." The agency is said to be still uncovering more problems as it continues to look at the data.
"That's what we're trying to figure out," he said. "We find one thing and then it goes back further and so that's what the challenge has been."