March 17 (UPI) — A 13-year-old was behind the wheel of the pickup truck that collided with a van carrying University of the Southwest golfers killing nine people and injuring two, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said investigators were able to identify the remains of the driver of the Dodge 2500 Ram pickup truck by his size, adding that Henrich Siemens, 38, was in the truck with the boy at the time of the crash.
Preliminary information indicated that the left front tire of the pickup truck was a spare that failed and caused the vehicle to pull into oncoming traffic in the two-lane roadway as both vehicles were likely traveling near the posted speed limit of 75 mph, Landsberg said.
Landsberg said his team was looking through all of the evidence from the scene and said it did appear that it was “very clearly a high speed, head-on collision” that left both vehicles in flames and that “quite a number of the bus passengers were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.”
“We have literally thousands of pictures that were taken by the various first responders, and there is no question about the force of impact,” he said.
The driver and Siemens were among those killed in the crash along with golf coach Tyler James and the six players identified as Mauricio Sanchez, 19, of Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colo.; Karissa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.
Dayton Price, 19, and Hayden Underhill, 20, survived the crash and remain hospitalized Thursday in Lubbock, Texas.
“One of the students is eating chicken soup,” University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton said. “I spoke with the parents and they are there with them and they are recovering every day.
“It’s a game of inches, and every hour leads them one step closer to another day … There is no indication as to how long it’s going to take, but they are both stable and recovering and every day making more and more progress.”
Tipton added that most students are off campus for spring break, but the school plans to hold a memorial service for the victims when classes resume.
“We are a family of Mustangs,” he said, referencing the school’s mascot. “We’ve run as one, we run together and [when] one of us is hurting, all of us are hurting.”
