Texas: Boy drove pickup that crashed; there are 9 dead

HOBBS, New Mexico, USA (AP) A 13-year-old boy was driving the pickup truck that hit a wagon in West Texas, a collision that killed nine people, including six members of a varsity golf team and their coach, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

The boy and a man who were riding in the pickup were also killed.

The front left tire of the truck, which was the spare one, burst before the impact, said Bruce Landsberg, vice president of the NTSB (agency's English acronym).

Although the speed at which both vehicles were driving is unknown, “it is clear that it was a high-speed collision,” Landsberg said.

The minimum age in Texas to begin driving courses for the purpose of obtaining a learner's license is 14 years old, and 15 to receive a provisional license that allows driving with an instructor or authorized adult on board the vehicle. Sergeant Victor Taylor of the Department of Public Safety said that if a 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel it would have been a violation of the law.

The pickup truck went into the opposite lane on a dimly lit two-lane road before crashing head-on into the wagon. In the accident, the boy, the man who was traveling with him, six college students from New Mexico and a golf instructor died.

Students from the University of the Southwest, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, as well as the coach, were returning from participating in a golf tournament when the accident occurred on Tuesday night. Two Canadian students were hospitalized in critical condition.

NTSB sent a team of investigators to the scene of the accident in Andrews County, Texas, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the New Mexico border.

The golf teams were traveling in a 2017 Ford Transit wagon carrying a trailer when they hit the van, and both vehicles caught fire, according to Eric Weiss, NTSB spokesman.

He noted that the accident occurred on a two-lane paved road where the speed limit is 75 mph (120 km/h), although investigators have not yet determined the speed at which the vehicles were traveling.

The Texas Department of Public Safety released the names of the deceased: Golf coach Tyler James, 26, from Hobbs, New Mexico; and players Mauricio Sanchez, 19, originally from Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, from Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, from Westminster, Colorado; Karisa Raines, 21 from Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, from Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, originally from Portugal.

Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, and an unidentified 13-year-old boy, who were riding in the 2007 Dodge 2500 pickup, also died.

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Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Snow from Phoenix.

Associated Press journalists Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Stengle, in Dallas; Rob Gillies, in Toronto, and Barry Hatton, in Lisbon, contributed to this office.