FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—When Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived at a crash scene in the Panhandle this summer, they found a 23-year-old Navy officer dead at the wheel with neck wounds that initially looked like a possible shooting.
A trooper later messaged the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that injuries were from the deployment of an air bag in the 2006 Ford Ranger pickup in the July accident in Pensacola.
Though the NHTSA is investigating and hasn’t made a final determination yet, the family of Hayden Jones Jr. says there’s ample evidence the death was caused by an exploding Takata air bag. It would be the 20th such death in the United States—and would come six years after the start of a recall of that vehicle model….