I understand your concern.
I understand your concern. This happened to me a while back (probably a good bit before the time this thread started) and it was definitely scary, but I did notice the cruise control cable had popped off the throttle and wasn't moving with it. This seemed to cause it and I promptly pulled a good old black zip tie out and secured it back to the assembly. This "fixed" the problem and I've been driving it ever since without a problem.
It looks like the problem is a plastic tip on the end of the cable gets worn down and doesn't remain secured in the assembly any longer. As I said, a nylon zip tie wasn't exactly the most high-tech solution but even my mechanic (and a Ford technician at the Dealer on one visit for another service) said it wasn't bad and would likely hold up longer than the original configuration.
This is my third Taurus (all with 3.0L Vulcan engines) and it hasn't really dissuaded me from driving the car or losing faith in the Ford brand. I still drive it every day; a 72 mi. round trip to work and back.
I hope you got your issue resolved.