Toyota Motor Corp.'s investigation of accidents involving unintended acceleration traced "virtually all" to drivers who stepped on the wrong pedal, a company spokesman said.
The automaker is looking into causes of unintended acceleration in its cars and trucks and has recalled more than 8 million worldwide in the past year for defects such as pedals that stuck or snagged on floor mats. U.S. auto-safety regulators are also probing the causes and haven't released their findings.
Toyota has reviewed about 2,000 reports of unintended acceleration since March, including analyses of information from event-data recorders when the incidents involved crashes, said spokesman Mike Michels in Torrance, Calif.
"There are a variety of causes — pedal entrapment, sticky pedal, other foreign objects in the car" and "pedal misapplication," Michels said Tuesday. Asked how many crashes were linked to pushing the accelerator instead of the brake, he said, "Virtually all."