Engine Shut Off Without Warning problems of the 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis

The vehicle recently experienced two sudden acceleration events in two days 15 miles apart while decelerating and using the brake in what could only be related to an intermittent failure of the electronic throttle control. While on vacation during a 75 deg evening with the car at operating temperature I was navigating some s turns high on a bluff at 30mph. While coming into a corner with my foot on the brake and slowing to around 20mph the car suddenly accelerated. I hit the brakes hard, turned away from the corner to avoid going over the cliff and turned off the key. All this happened in less then 5 seconds. The next day mid afternoon after driving 20 miles I was leaving a park and traveling on a level straight road at around 25mph. Coming up to a stop sign I let off the gas and started applying the brake (like the day before) at about 15mph the car violently accelerated. I hit the brakes hard again, the rear tire started spinning and it pushed the car through the crosswalk past the stop sign and into oncoming traffic by about 4ft before I got the engine shut off. Once again this all happened in a matter of seconds. After a restart everything was normal again. I drove around 250 mi to get home without any further incident. Two weeks prior to these events I had the car at the dealer to program a new transponder key, reset the keyless entry and test the throttle to see if the initial deadband could be adjusted (no adjustment was done). After the incident I returned to the dealer and they said they have never heard of this problem, there are no recalls or tsbs, and the ecm would not datalog anything since there was no trouble light. They said there was nothing they could do. I consider this unsatisfactory, deem it a major safety defect and Ford should be required to correct this immediately. A quick search reveals I am not the only one who has experience this.

While driving up a short moderate grade, the car engine shut off. The battery (nearly new) was fine and the dashboard lights were displayed with icons lit. The steering was affected and the car drifted to a stop on a level surface. I was successful in restarting the car on the first try and this incident has not reoccurred. I did not make note of what the dashboard lights were, as I was more interested in restarting the car. I do have a rather heavy key set (heavier than most).