WASHINGTON (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. and US regulators faced more questions from Congress on Tuesday over the giant Japanese car company's troubled safety record. "We know something has gone terribly wrong," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said.

Opening the third congressional hearing on Toyota's problems in a week, the Democrat said he intends to work on a legislative fix "to get at all of these issues in a real way".

Toyota drivers reported 52 deaths since 2000 linked to cases of sudden unintended acceleration through the end of February, according to new figures released by the Transportation Department. Federal safety officials haven't confirmed the link but have received a spike in complaints since Toyota began a series of big recalls in October. Previously, 34 deaths were blamed on the problem.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Democrat, noted that not just Toyota cars have defects, but that other automakers also have been subject to millions of recalls. "It is not a Toyota problem, it is an industry problem," he said.

Rockefeller, whose state is the site of a Toyota plant, said, "The system meant to safeguard against faulty vehicles has failed, and it needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed right away."

"It is clear that somewhere along the way public safety took a back seat and corporate profits drove the company's decisions," he said in an opening statement.

Rockefeller last month asked the Transportation Department's Inspector General to conduct an audit of the government's response to the recalls and has sought information from Toyota, the government and auto insurers.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is probing whether Toyota and federal safety regulators acted swiftly enough to deal with cases of sudden unintended acceleration of the Japanese automaker's cars and trucks.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda pledged last week before the House Oversight Committee to be more responsive to driver complaints and safety warnings from the government. Toyoda made a similar promise to improve quality control while apologizing Monday to Chinese Toyota owners.

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

Toyota also said yesterday it is repairing more than 1.6 million vehicles around the world, including the US and Japan, for potentially leaky oil hoses.

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. Since September, Toyota has recalled about 6 million vehicles in the US.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Transportation Department's safety agency, is seeking records on Toyota's recalls and investigating whether electronics were behind the vehicle defects. NHTSA also continues to look into steering complaints from drivers of the popular Corolla model.

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