A 13-year-old boy was driving the pickup truck that hit a van in West Texas, a collision that killed nine people, including six members of a varsity golf team and their coach, as reported Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
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, reported Bruce Landsberg, vice president of the NTSB.
Although the speed at which both vehicles were driving is unknown, “it is clear that it was a high-speed collision,” he added.
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 van. 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.
“Both are stable and recovering and progressing more and more every day,” Southwest University President Ryan Tipton said Thursday about the two injured students.
NTSB sent a team of investigators to the scene of the accident in Andrews County, Texas, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the New Mexico border.
The golf teams were traveling in a 2017 Ford Transit van carrying a trailer at the time of colliding with the van, and both vehicles caught fire, according to Eric Weiss, NTSB spokesman.
He also 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.
The two injured students were identified by authorities as Dayton Price of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; and Hayden Underhill, from Amherstview, Ontario, Canada.
Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, and the unidentified 13-year-old boy, who were riding in the 2007 Dodge 2500 pickup, also died.
Most of the students who died in the accident were trying out life away from home for the first time at the private Christian university, where on-campus enrollments are around 300 students.
Prayers and condolences flooded social media in the last few hours, as the university and friends struggled to raise funds to help the victims' families. On Wednesday, a monument was installed on campus, near the field where the team practices. There they placed flowers, golf balls and a handmade sign with a cross and the initials USW.
After the tragic accident, Texas Governor Greg Abbott expressed his grief at what happened: “We are grieving the loved ones of the people whose lives were terribly taken too soon in this fatal car accident near Andrews last night.”
With information from AP
Keep reading: