13-Year-Old Boy Drove Truck That Hit Van in Texas, Killing 9, Officials Say

A 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that struck a van in Texas on Tuesday evening in a collision that killed 9 folks, together with a school golf coach and 6 of his gamers, together with the boy and a person touring with him, officers mentioned on Thursday.

Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, mentioned at a information convention that the truck’s left entrance tire was a spare that had blown out earlier than the truck veered into the lane the golf group’s van was touring in and struck the van head-on. It was unclear at what speeds the automobiles had been touring, however Mr. Landsberg famous that the pace restrict within the space is 75 miles per hour.

“It was very clearly a high-speed, head-on collision between two heavy automobiles,” he mentioned. “There isn’t a query concerning the pressure of affect.” Each automobiles went up in flames within the collision close to Andrews, Texas, about 50 miles east of the state line with New Mexico.

It was unclear why the 13-year-old boy, whose title was not launched by the authorities on Thursday, was driving the truck. Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, who was additionally within the truck, was killed within the collision, the authorities mentioned.

The College of the Southwest recognized the victims from that establishment as Tyler James, 26, the coach, and the student-athletes Travis Garcia, Karisa Raines, Mauricio Sanchez, Tiago Sousa, Laci Stone and Jackson Zinn. A lot of the golfers had been freshmen on the college, a non-public, Christian establishment in Hobbs, N.M., close to the state line with Texas.

Two golf gamers who had been within the van, Dayton Worth and Hayden Underhill, had been critically injured however survived the crash, and so they had been present process medical remedy in Lubbock, Texas, on Thursday, a spokesman for the college mentioned at a information convention.

Ryan Tipton, provost of College of the Southwest, mentioned on Thursday that each gamers had been “making regular progress.”

“One of many college students is consuming hen soup,” Mr. Tipton mentioned. “Each day it’s a recreation of inches. There isn’t a indication of how lengthy it’s going to take, however they’re each secure and recovering and day-after-day making extra progress.”

In Texas, 14-year-olds can start a classroom part of a driver’s training course, however they can not apply for a learner’s license till they’re 15, in line with the Texas Division of Public Security.

In an announcement on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas mentioned state officers had been serving to to analyze the collision.

“We grieve with the family members of the people whose lives had been horrifically taken too quickly on this deadly automobile crash close to Andrews final evening,” Mr. Abbott mentioned.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico mentioned on Wednesday that she was “deeply saddened” by the information.

“This can be a horrible, tragic accident,” she mentioned.