The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Ford's inaction failed to "prioritize the safety of the American public."

The U.S. auto-safety agency said Ford failed to recall more than 600,000 vehicles with defective parts in a timely manner.

The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has imposed a $165 million penalty on Ford Motor for failing to meet federal recall standards. It was the second-largest civil penalty in the agency’s history.

NHTSA fined Ford $165 million for being slow to issue a recall for defective rearview cameras.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Ford was too slow to recall vehicles with faulty rearview cameras, and it failed to give the agency complete information, which is required by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act.