Toyota was aware of throttle problems last year.

NATIONAL – According to USA Today (1/25, Healey) reports, “Toyota says it knew there were problems with accelerator-pedal assemblies from supplier CTS late last year, but not enough to warrant a recall.

The automaker says it hurriedly announced last Thursday a planned recall of 2.3 million Toyotas, back to 2005 models, because the defect trend had picked up.” Toyota “says it has no direct reports of injuries or deaths,” but an ABC report has linked “the problem to four deaths.”