Calif. grandmother tells Congress of family lost when Lexus accelerated out of control

Lastrella puts tragic face on Toyota recalls

WASHINGTON — Fe Lastrella refused to speak Wednesday of the ghastly accident that devastated her family. She didn’t need to.

Everyone in House hearing room knew that hers was the tragedy that galvanized attention around safety flaws of Toyotas, led to the recalls of millions of cars and brought the scion of the world’s largest automaker before a congressional committee to apologize.

Akio Toyoda had left the room for a news conference when Lastrella, a petite grandmother from San Francisco, took a seat at the witness table. Tearful from the first word, she announced that she would not talk about the Aug. 28 accident that robbed her of two grown children, a granddaughter and a son-in-law.

“I’m here to speak for my four children and for the safety of the consumers through the world,” Lastrella told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “You don’t want another family to suffer like we are suffering.”

The unspeakable details: A Lexus ES 350 sedan borrowed from a dealer, filled with Lastrella’s family: her son Chris, daughter Cleofe; Cleofe’s husband, Mark Saylor — and Cleofe and Mark’s 13-year-old daughter, Mahala.

The stuck accelerator that turned the car into a missile traveling at more than 100 mph, near Santee, Calif.; the recorded 911 call that captured their harrowing last moments; Chris’ voice, telling the others to pray.

And finally, Lastrella’s disbelief the next morning when she learned at first that three had been killed — then, all four.

The crash got the attention of the world’s largest automaker and inspired Akio Toyoda, the Japanese grandson of the company’s founder, to testify in an extraordinary appearance before a committee of the U.S. Congress in Washington.

He apologized generally to Congress, millions of Toyota owners and to the Saylor family — specifically and repeatedly — during three hours of testimony.

Then he left, and Lastrella took her seat at the table.

She didn’t mention him or the apologies. Instead, she talked of her children and their lives. She noted that Saylor, a California Highway Patrol officer at the time of the crash, had been awarded in 1997 for pulling a man from a burning car.

“It is ironic that he saved someone, and he wasn’t able to save his family,” Lastrella said.