Toyota Recalls 2.17 Million Vehicles Over Pedal Entrapment

Feb. 24, 2011 — -- Exactly one year after Toyota's CEO, Akio Toyoda, stood before a congressional hearing to accept "full responsibility" for the safety defects in the company's cars that have been linked to dozens of deaths, the car manufacturing giant announced today it is conducting a "voluntary safety recall" of 2.17 million vehicles in the U.S. at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviewed more than 400,000 pages of Toyota documents to determine whether the scope of its recalls for pedal entrapment was sufficient," NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in a statement to ABC News. "As a result of the agency's review, NHTSA asked Toyota to recall these additional vehicles, and now that the company has done so, our investigation is closed."

Toyota is recalling vehicles of several different Toyota and Lexus models from 2004 to 2011, including more than 700,000 2010 RAV4s, the largest single batch of cars in the recall. More than 600,000 2009 4Runners were also recalled.

CLICK HERE for ABC News' full coverage of the Toyota recalls.

"In the event that the floor carpet around the accelerator pedal is not properly replaced in the correct position after a service operation, there is a possibility that the plastic pad embedded into the floor carpet may interfere... [and] the accelerator pedal may become temporarily stuck in a partially depressed position rather than returning to the idle position," Toyota said in a statement on its website, explaining the recall of the 2007 GS 300. Each make and model listed was recalled for various floormat- or carpet-related safety issues.