My son, john, has had the accelerator cable on his 1999 Mercury Sable, fail three times in the last three years. The most recent failure was yesterday in the middle lane of the gulf freeway while traveling at 65 mph. The faillure results in disconnection of the accelerator cable from the pedal, resulting in total loss of manual throttle control. He was fortunate to reach the freeway shoulder before he stopped. We called the dealer who had replaced the cable twice before for the same failure and he said his only fix was to replace the same cable again. Since we already knew that to be unsafe, we "jury rigged" a fix ourselfves that we think is ok. I am a retired nasa engineer and my assessment of the design, especially in view of the three failures, is that it is inadequate and unsafe. I cannot tell whether the failure mode is generic or for some reason, peculiar to our car. The dealer could only offer that we should call Ford customer relations. I talked to them and they could only refer me back to the dealer. After some argument they finally agreed to take down the information and forward it to some appropriate party. They offered be no assurance that there would be follow-up or way for me to follow-up their action. I am filing this complaint to insure some kind of follow-up on these failures.

- Houston, TX, USA

Was slowing down to exit onto ramp, when suddenly vehicle accelerated forward without warning. Foot was on brakes. Vehicle spun around twice & then hit guardrail.

- Springfield, MA, USA