For the first time, Toyota led the U.S. auto industry in recalled vehicles — the vast majority of them involving those accelerators that Toyota says are jamming under floor mats, according to an analysis by the Detroit Free Press:

The Japanese automaker put 4.3 million Toyota and Lexus models under recall last year. The unintended acceleration problem led to the automaker’s largest recall ever after an accident that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members.

It was a bad year for recalls. Automakers recalled 15.2 million vehicles in 2009, a sharp jump from 8.6 million in 2008, the Free Press found. All three Detroit automakers also saw their count of recalled vehicles rise in 2009, even as they caught problems earlier in production. Among all automakers, there were 117 recalls covering a wide range of safety problems

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