I had a very strange event happen in a 1997 Toyota Previa minivan the other

day. When rounding a corner moving forward about 15 mph, I somehow got the

automatic gear system to show in Reverse. I had moved the gear system in

the wrong direction, but normally when I do this the car has some defense

against the action and doesn't allow you to get into reverse. Somehow this

time it happened (or at least the gauge indicated it had happened).

Immediately, every light on the front panel went on, and all of the car's

automatic systems died. I lost automatic transmission and brake

effectiveness within seconds. I pulled over to the side of the road, and

somewhat in disbelief I left the engine running maybe 10 seconds and then

turned off the ignition. After 30 seconds, I turned ignition back on, and

everything seems to be working. My question is should I be concerned that

I have done some damage to this car?

I called this in to the local Toyota dealer, and the master technician is

saying what I am describing is not possible, therefore I shouldn't worry

about it. That's not very comforting since I was there and it did happen.

­ It could be the car wasn't actually in reverse, but the gauge was

showing a false state. Maybe I put the car's internal computer into an

unexpected state and it could not recover from that; I'm really not sure.

Would an event like this put any specific systems in jeopardy, and if I take

it in for an examination, what systems should I have them take apart and

examine for possible damage?