“Today’s announcement sends a very clear message to the entire industry that manufacturers have responsibility for the complete and timely reporting of this critical safety information,” Mark Rosekind, the new head of the agency, said on Thursday.

Image Rick Schostek, executive vice president of Honda North America. Credit... Jabin botsford/The New York Times

The unfiled claims included eight, including one involving a death, for problems with airbags made by the Japanese supplier Takata, which itself has been embroiled in a safety crisis that has spurred the recall of millions of vehicles worldwide. The airbags can explode violently when they deploy, sending metal fragments flying into the cabin; five deaths have been linked to the defect.

Honda, the automaker most affected by the Takata recalls, said it used other channels to report those eight claims to regulators, but it did not specify how. As far back as 2004, Honda had received reports of rupturing airbags, The New York Times reported in September.

Under a system called Early Warning Reporting, automakers are required to disclose claims they receive that blame vehicle defects for serious injuries or deaths. The system was set up in 2000 after a wave of highway rollovers in Ford Explorers with Firestone tires. It was intended to give the safety agency better access to accident data and more leverage over the industry.

In November, Honda disclosed that it had consistently underreported claims for over a decade. An internal audit found that it had not reported 1,729 written claims or notices on injuries or deaths from mid-2003 through mid-2014 — far more than the approximately 900 reports that it did make for that period.