NHTSA Complaint #11454276 — 2021 FORD ESCAPE

We bought a new 2021 Ford Escape and within 2 weeks I noticed the steering would occasionally lock up for a few seconds when making a turn. It got worse over the week and at one turn I had to force the wheel back by using both hands on one side of the wheel causing a grinding sound. I would have driven up onto the sidewalk if I couldn't get it to come back. Brought it to the dealer's service center and was told by the service manager "this is a known issue (something in the steering column disintegrating) and they had fixed this same issue plenty of times before. The have changed the design of the steering column, but did not know if this car had one of the old steering columns or the new ones." There was no warning what-so-ever. I question if this was a known issue, why was there no recall and why wasn't this checked before the car was sold. Someone could have been seriously injured or killed.