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?