Toyota crash lands local man on TV
By Bill Lawson / Staff Writer / blawson@maumellemonitor.com
Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:01 PM CST
Michael Teston, 49, of Maumelle said he knew the massive Toyota recall of automobiles was coming because his 2006 Toyota 4-Runner was one of those that crashed, he said.
Teston, who is a licensed physical therapist in Little Rock, said he was in DeWitt on a hunting trip last month when his vehicle malfunctioned as he was pulling into a gas station.
Fortunately, he said he was only five feet away from a pole or else he would have gone through the convenience store, Teston said. The first hint he had anything was wrong was when the anti-lock brakes kicked in, he said.
He said the engine just suddenly became “stuck wide open” and he slammed into the pole.
Teston said it definitely wasn’t an issue of an accelerator becoming stuck in a floor mat.
“That’s all fabricated,” he said.
Teston appeared on the “ABC World News” last Thursday and on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday in a segment on the national recall.
His accident happened on Dec. 13 while he was returning from a duck hunting venture, he said.
He said he was pulling into the station and braking when the “engine started running full blast.”
“I was standing on the brakes,” he said. “After I hit the pole the back wheels spun widely out of control and I was able to slam the transmission into park.”
But the engine was still “running wide open,” he said.
Teston said Toyota towed his vehicle into the shop but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. He said Toyota told him no trouble codes were activated and they drove it over 100 miles with testing equipment attached and couldn’t find a problem.
Teston said he blamed the sudden acceleration on a software issue dating back to a 2002 software change the company made. He said the gas pedal had nothing to do with the issue.
“It’s a ticking time bomb,” he said.
He’s afraid to drive his Toyota and instead is driving an old truck, he said.
