A 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that hit a van in Texas Tuesday night in a collision that killed nine people, including a college golf coach and six of his players, along with the boy and a man traveling with him. along, officials said Thursday.
Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the truck’s left front tire was a spare tire that had blown before the truck entered the lane where the golf team’s van was driving and flipped the van upside down. On. It was unclear what speeds the vehicles were traveling at, but Mr Landsberg noted that the speed limit in the area is 75 miles per hour.
“It was very clearly a high-speed head-on collision between two heavy vehicles,” he said. “There’s no doubting the power of the impact.” Both vehicles went up in flames in the collision near Andrews, Texas, about 50 miles east of the New Mexico state line.
It was unclear why the 13-year-old boy, whose name was not released by authorities on Thursday, was driving the truck. Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, who was also in the truck, was killed in the collision, authorities said.
The University of the Southwest identified the victims of that institution as Tyler James, 26, the coach, and student-athletes Travis Garcia, Karisa Raines, Mauricio Sanchez, Tiago Sousa, Laci Stone and Jackson Zinn. Most golfers were freshmen at college, a private Christian institution in Hobbs, NM, near the Texas state line.
Two golfers in the van, Dayton Price and Hayden Underhill, were seriously injured but survived the crash, and were undergoing medical treatment in Lubbock, Texas, on Thursday, a university spokesperson said at a news conference.
Ryan Tipton, provost of the University of the Southwest, said on Thursday that both players are “making steady progress.”
“One of the students is eating chicken soup,” Mr. Tipton said. “Every day is a game of inches. There is no indication of how long it will last, but they are both stable and recovering and making more progress every day.”
In Texas, 14-year-olds can begin a classroom phase of driver training, but they can’t apply for a learning license until age 15, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
In a statement on Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said state officials were helping investigate the collision.
“We grieve with the loved ones of those whose lives were horribly taken too soon in this fatal car accident near Andrews last night,” said Mr Abbott.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Wednesday she was “deeply saddened” by the news.
“This is a terrible, tragic accident,” she said.