The news follows the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's July 17 announcement of an official investigation into the Escape and the mechanically identical Mazda Tribute following 68 complaints about the issue. The complaints include 13 crashes, nine injuries and one death.
The position of the cruise control cable can change when the SUVs are serviced, Zwiebel added. The NHTSA is also investigating whether the cables might have been damaged during a December 2004 recall that addressed an accelerator cable defect, The Detroit News reports.
To fix the issue, dealers will replace the fasteners on the engine cover in order to raise it and make room for the cruise control cable. Though it will take several weeks for the necessary parts to be distributed to dealers, Ford says it has a temporary fix - owners can have the cruise control disconnected by dealers, effectively preventing any unintended acceleration.
Of the affected Escapes, roughly 424,000 are in the United States, while the remainder are in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada and several other small markets.
The recall is the third for the Escape in the last two weeks, with the most recent concerning a faulty fuel line in certain 2013 models that poses a fire risk.
