WASHINGTON — The 911 call was from a frantic passenger, trapped with family members in a runaway vehicle barreling down a California highway with a stuck accelerator and no brakes.

The call ended with someone telling people in the car to hold on and pray, followed by a woman's scream.

The high-speed crash near San Diego in August, involving an out-of-control Lexus ES 350 that killed four members of a family, led Toyota on Tuesday to issue its largest-ever U.S. recall, involving 3.8 million vehicles.

The recall is intended to address problems with a removable floor mat that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash.

Toyota and the government warned owners Tuesday to remove the mats from their vehicles until the Japanese automaker could find a way to fix the potential safety hazard. The recall will involve popular models such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid.

Toyota said it was still working with officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find a remedy and said owners could be notified about the recall as early as next week. Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said until the company finds a fix, owners should simply take out the removable floor mat on the driver's side and not replace it.

"A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop a vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death," Miller said.

The recall will affect 2007-10 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-10 Toyota Avalon, 2004-09 Toyota Prius, 2005-10 Toyota Tacoma, 2007-10 Toyota Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350 vehicles. Toyota's previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue. The company declined to say how many complaints it had received about the accelerator issue.

NHTSA said it had received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on the Toyota vehicles involved.

For information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hot line at 888-327-4236, Toyota at 800-331-4331 or Lexus at 800-255-3987.