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Hearing to determine whether company and regulators acted quickly enough to deal with cars' acceleration problems

Toyota faces more questions from US politicians about its troubled safety record when its senior officials testify today at a Senate hearing on the carmaker's worldwide recall of 8.5m vehicles.

The Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation will hold the third congressional hearing in seven days on whether Toyota and federal safety regulators acted swiftly enough to deal with cases of sudden unintended acceleration of the Japanese company's cars and trucks. Three Toyota executives and the transportation secretary Ray LaHood are among the witnesses expected today.

The Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, pledged last week before the House of Representatives' oversight committee to be more responsive to driver complaints and government safety warnings. Toyoda made a similar promise to improve quality control yesterday in Beijing while apologising to Chinese Toyota owners.

But the company still faces lingering doubts about the cause of the problems, which it has blamed on accelerator pedals that can get obstructed by floor mats or stick due to design flaws. Safety experts have said the vehicles' electronic systems could be to blame. Toyota insists there is no evidence of an electrical cause.

The recalls have damaged Toyota's reputation and set the stage for large numbers of death and injury lawsuits amid a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, a probe by the securities and exchange commission and more scrutiny from the transportation department. The government has attributed 34 deaths to alleged sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 2000. Since September, Toyota has recalled about 6m vehicles in the US.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the transportation department's safety agency, is seeking records on Toyota's recalls and investigating whether electronics were behind the vehicle defects. NHTSA is also looking into steering complaints from drivers of the popular Corolla model.

Questions remain over whether the recalls have fully addressed the problem. A review by the New York Times found numerous complaints to the government about speed control problems in Toyota Camry saloons not included in the recalls.

The 2002 Camry, for example, was not part of the recall but had about 175 speed control complaints, with about half involving crashes, the paper reported on its website. The 2007 Camry, meanwhile, which was included in the recall, had 200 speed control complaints, with fewer than one-quarter resulting in accidents.

Toyota is expected to send three company executives to testify: Yoshi Inaba, Toyota's North American president; Shinichi Sasaki, an executive vice-president who oversees quality control; and Takeshi Uchiyamada, an executive vice-president who is considered the father of the Prius hybrid.

Inaba planned to tell politicians that the former transportation secretary Rodney Slater would lead an independent panel to review changes to the company's quality control systems. Inaba said in remarks planned for delivery today that Toyota dealers have repaired more than 1m recalled vehicles.

Toyota has said it plans to conduct an outside review of the company's operations, provide prompter responses to consumer complaints and improve its communications with the government on safety issues.ToyotaMotoringUnited States
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