Reports of Unintended Acceleration Lead to Defect Petition for 320,000 Ford Escapes

A nonprofit consumer safety group formally asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday to investigate its claim that some cruise control cables on about 320,000 Ford Escapes were damaged during a repair for an unrelated recall, making the vehicles susceptible to unintended acceleration.

In its defect petition, the Center for Auto Safety said the problem, which was said to exist among Escapes from the 2002-4 model years, could have ?lethal consequences.?

The original recall, which covered about 470,000 Escapes from 2002-4 equipped with the 3-liter V-6 engine, was performed to prevent the accelerator cable from snagging on the accelerator pedal, which could have prevented the engine from returning to idle.

In its petition, however, the safety group argued that in October 2005, Ford sent a technical service bulletin to dealers cautioning mechanics to not damage the adjacent cruise control cable during the course of the recall repair. Any damage could allow the cable to snag on a ridge in the engine cover, causing unintended acceleration, the petition said.

Ford has never formally informed the roughly 320,000 owners who had the repair performed that damage may have been caused to their vehicles? cruise control, according to Clarence Ditlow, the group?s executive director.

The petition also cites the case of Saige Bloom, a 17-year-old who died in a crash in Payson, Ariz., in January. According to the petition, the Bloom family hired an expert who inspected the engine of the 2002 Escape driven by Ms. Bloom at the time of the accident and found the cable was snagged.

Mr. Ditlow claims Ford should conduct a new recall and the safety agency should pursue a civil fine.

?Ford knew there was a problem. Ford knew the consequences,? he said in a telephone interview.

Under federal regulations, after learning of a safety problem, a manufacturer is required to inform N.H.T.S.A. within five working days of its plan for a recall.

There were 133 complaints on the safety agency?s Web site from owners of 2002-4 Escapes who claimed they experienced sudden acceleration. Some owners claimed their experiences occurred before the recall, raising the possibility that the speed-control cable could fail independent of a faulty repair. Other failures occurred on vehicles that were recalled, according to the petition.

There is no indication on N.H.T.S.A.?s Web site that it investigated those complaints. Asked to comment on the petition, Ford responded with an e-mailed statement about the death of Ms. Bloom:

?We offer our deepest sympathies to the Bloom family for their tragic loss. We are in the midst of our investigation, and we have not reached any conclusions. We will work closely with N.H.T.S.A. to determine the cause of the crash and will take appropriate action if warranted by the outcome of the investigation.?

Anyone can file a defect petition with the agency. The agency then must decide whether the petition has sufficient merit to begin a formal investigation.

Late in 2009, the Center for Auto Safety filed a defect petition asking the agency to investigate its assertion that 1993-2004 Grand Cherokees were susceptible to catching fire when struck from behind. In 2010, the agency granted the request and last month it upgraded its investigation to an Engineering Analysis, indicating its heightened concern.

Source: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/reports-of-unintended-acceleration-lead-to-defect-petition-for-320000-ford-escapes/

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