A 13 year old boy who was driving a van that crashed into the vehicle carrying the men’s and women’s golf teams from Southwestern University left 9 dead, including the underage driver, reported the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Six team members and the head coach died in the accident, as well as the teenager who was driving the van and a 38 year-old passenger. Two more people remain in critical condition in a Texas hospital.
Bruce Landsberg, vice president of the NTSB, explained to journalists that the Dodge truck 38 Ram driven by the teen was traveling northbound near Midland, Texas, Tuesday night when it crossed into the southbound lane and collided head-on with the passenger van of 13 seats that transported the golf equipment.
Detailed that what would have caused the fatal mishap is that the left front tire of the truck, which was a spare, failed and caused the vehicle to turn sharply to the left and cross into the opposite lane.
The identity of the minor 13 involved in the accident was not revealed, but that of his companion in the van Dodge, it is about Henrich Siemens, a man of 38 years old.
On the side of the golf team, the victims were id entified as the coach, Tyler James, and the golfers: Maurico Sánchez, 19 years old, from Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colorado; Karissa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, from Portugal.
There were two survivors of the team after the accident, they are Dayton Price, aged 19, from Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, from 19, of Amherstview, Ontario, who were taken to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas.
Landsberg noted that it was determined that the adolescent was in the driver’s seat due to the size of the remains inside the vehicle.
In addition, he said that the investigators are reviewing all the evidence on the accident, but so far everything points to the fact that the The incident was “very clearly a high-speed head-on collision.” Both vehicles caught fire after the collision.
“We have literally thousands of photographs that were taken by various lifeguards, and there is no doubt about the force of the impact”, he explained.
And he stated that “a large number of bus passengers did not use seat belts”.
In two or three weeks, the NTSB will publish a preliminary report on the investigation of this fatal accident.