As Toyota's Georgetown plant resumed full production Monday after a weeklong shutdown to fix a problem with accelerator pedals, the nation's largest auto insurer revealed it had alerted federal safety regulators on numerous occasions starting in 2007 about reports of unexpected acceleration in the vehicles.

Japanese news media also reported Monday that Toyota is close to recalling as many as 300,000 of its popular Prius hybrids over brake problems — a decision that would further embarrass a trusted brand suddenly beset by safety problems.

The warnings from insurer State Farm, which maintains a vast store of crash data based on its customer base of more than 40 million, followed a stream of consumer complaints about the alleged defect. Regulators received the warnings more than a year before they pressed the automaker to issue recalls affecting millions of cars and trucks.

Charles Bertram | Staff

Jared Carroll worked inside a new Camry in the trim section as production resumed Monday on the number one assembly line at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky plant in Georgetown.

Charles Bertram | Staff

Jeff Lustenberg, left, and Bill Ingram installed a windshield Monday on a new Camry at the Toyota plant in Georgetown. Georgetown residents said in interviews Monday that they were confident the company would thrive again soon.