Toyota Recall Comes Too Late For Wis. Man

HALES CORNERS, Wis. -- Tuesday's announcement that Toyota Motor Corp. would halt sales of some of its top-selling models came too late for a Hales Corners man who crashed his 2010 Toyota Corolla, Milwaukee TV station WISN reported.

The company announced it would halt sales of some of its vehicles to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles.

Tony Raasch was trying to merge into traffic on a local highway earlier this month when another vehicle changed into the same lane.

Raasch slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision but instead of stopping, his Corolla accelerated.

"I just remember pressing as hard as I could and I felt the car just going," he said.

Raasch bounced off one car, went over the median into oncoming traffic and finally came to a stop when he drove into a snow bank. The crash tore up the vehicle's front end, causing $10,000 in damage.

Raasch was cited for failure to yield, but plans to fight it.

"Completely out of control. I couldn't do anything but steer," he said.