The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reported that there have been 13 fatalities involving Toyota vehicles that were included in the recall that started last September. This brings the total to 34 people.

All but one of the deaths reported to NHTSA occurred in prior years, as far back as 1992. Most of the incidents occurred between 2003 and 2009. According to accounts filed with NHTSA, Toyota and Lexus vehicles suddenly raced forward, smashing into other cars, buildings and pedestrians. In addition to the fatalities, federal regulators said 22 people reported injuries from unintended acceleration accidents involving Toyota vehicles.

“It is normal for NHTSA to receive an increase in consumer complaints after a recall is announced ,” said Olivia Alair, a spokeswoman for the agency. “NHTSA takes every complaint seriously and reviews each one carefully. The agency is quickly gathering more data on all of these additional complaints to help guide our examination of sudden acceleration . . . as well as other safety issues.”

Toyota has not released data from its own internal complaint files on accidents, injuries or deaths related to the unintended acceleration. The automaker has declined to state how many complaints of the problem have been filed. In general databases of auto manufacturers are quite a bit larger than NHTSA’s.

This month, both Congress and NHTSA have said they are looking into whether electronic throttle control could play a role in sudden acceleration.

Toyota officials have denied that possibility, pointing to internal and external testing, as well as eight federal investigations, none of which found a throttle defect.