Floor Mats Ruled Not To Be Cause of Fatal Wreck

Defective floor mats did not contribute to the Dec. 26 wreck in Southlake that killed four people who were conducting religious work in the area, a police spokesman said.

They drowned when a 2008 Toyota Avalon crashed through a metal fence and then landed in a pond near Lonesome Dove Road and Burney Lane, police have said.

Officers have not yet determined why the car suddenly sped out of control.

Toyota last year recalled the Avalon and other models because of concerns about the gas pedal getting stuck on the floor mat, causing sudden acceleration.

But Lt. Ben Brown, a Southlake police spokesman, said Wednesday that investigators have ruled out the floor mats because they were not inside the car.

"The accident investigators advised me yesterday that they found floor mats in the trunk of the vehicle," Brown said. "So, that rules out the safety recall.

"But that's all we know."

Brown said the investigation was continuing into other possibilities, including a different mechanical defect or driver error, but nothing specific had been determined by Wednesday.

He noted that investigators were consulting with officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to get information on other similar accidents.

Investigators had also hoped to get information from a computer inside the Avalon -- called an "event data recorder" or EDR -- which might show the car's acceleration, speed and braking prior to the crash.

On Wednesday, however, Brown had no updates on that part of the investigation.

The victims were Monty Hardy, 56, of Southlake, the driver; Hadassah Vance, 35, of Euless; Wendy Akion, 38, of Irving; and Sharon Ransom, 56, of Grapevine.

A spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses in North Texas confirmed that they all attended Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 3408 Hall-Johnson Road in Grapevine, and were doing service work for the church when the wreck happened.