NHTSA Complaint #11494225 — 2017 FORD FOCUS

Car was at highway speed and was given light input to change lanes. With light input, the engine accelerated in an uncontrolled manner, revving to maybe 5000 rpm. The driver had to slam on the brakes to counteract. Result was a rear-end collision with the car in front (Route 95 near Laurel, MD). For what it is worth, the car also gave an "overheating" alarm for the Powershift DCT transmission even though no such alarm had ever appeared previously. So first time alarm on the transmission and the following day this incident with the unintended acceleration. These could be unrelated, but could also be related. With the overheating transmission issue, the car was left sit for 10 minutes and then drove normally. Car also drove normally after the accident. No further abnormal acceleration issues.