A Port Richey mother said four days after she bought her brand new 2017 Toyota Tacoma she was left with nearly $6,000 worth of damage after the vehicle accelerated into a brick wall.
“I put it in park my foot was still on the brake and the vehicle lunged forward and hit the building,” Milissa Mazzitelli said. “It’s very scary. I don't even want to drive this vehicle. I am freaked out, I am scared.”
Mazzitelli filed a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She is one of eight complaints filed against the truck.
In her complaint Mazzitelli stated, “after I put in park the 2017 Toyota Tacoma lunged forward. This caused the vehicle to hit a brick wall. There was almost $5,950 in damage to the truck and the airbags did not go off. I watched myself crash into the wall and could not stop the truck.”
In another complaint from last December, a driver in Virginia wrote, “while stopped, with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle surged forward. The vehicle was previously taken to be diagnosed. The contact was informed the TCM and ECM needed to be updated.”
Mazzitelli said she isn’t asking for anything except for Toyota to investigate what happened. So far, she said she has been getting the run around and Toyota is dragging their feet. She said Toyota corporate told her an evaluator would be out in the next 30 days to look at her truck. Meanwhile, she said she has to drive around in an unsafe vehicle until then.
“I feel very hopeless. I feel hopeless. They don't care about anything. I'm not buying a used car, an old car, this is brand new. This had four miles on it when I bought it. It's nerve racking I don't know if it's going to happen again or something else worse, unfortunately I'm stuck driving it because of the circumstances,” Mazzitelli said.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, the trooper reviewed the video from the gas station and determined that the accident was a “possible mechanical failure, no citation issued.”
Mazzitelli said this was not human error. She said she clearly remembers putting the car in park and then losing control. She is asking Toyota to take her claims serious and immediately launch an investigation into her allegations.
“I'm worried this will happen to someone else and I pray to God that it doesn't because it was a nightmare to me,” Mazzitelli said. “I'm very lucky it could've been worse.”
Calls to Sun Toyota where Mazzitelli leased the truck were not returned. Multiple calls to Toyota Corporate over several days have also not been returned.
