🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Authorities have revealed that a crash that killed nine people in West Texas on Tuesday night involved a pickup truck being driven by a 13-year-old boy.
National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg made the announcement on Thursday. In the event, which Landsberg described in an Associated Press report as "a high-speed collision," the vehicles had been traveling at an unclear speed on a road with a speed limit of 75 mph. The crash also killed six University of the Southwest students and their golf coach as well as a man riding in the pickup truck with the boy.
In November, Texas was the scene of another deadly crash when a pickup truck collided with a school bus in Big Spring, and last month, icy weather around Houston led to two multi-vehicle pileups that left an estimated 22 cars crashed but resulted in no fatalities.
The cars involved in the Tuesday night incident were a Dodge 2500 pickup, which the boy was driving, and a Ford Transit passenger van, the AP reported.
"For unknown reasons, the Dodge pickup drove into the northbound lane and struck the Ford passenger van head on," said the Texas Department of Public Safety in a statement sent to Newsweek. "Both vehicles caught fire [as a result of the crash]."
Both the men's and women's golf teams were on the University of the Southwest van when it collided with the pickup truck, according to the AP. Tyler James was identified as the golf coach killed in the collision, with students Mauricio Sanchez, Travis Garcia, Jackson Zinn, Karissa Raines, Laci Stone and Tiago Sousa also losing their lives.
Two other students, Dayton Price and Hayden Underhill, were found alive but critically injured in the crash. Both are being treated at the University Medical Center and are expected to recover, the AP added.
"They are both stable and recovering and every day making more and more progress," University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton was quoted by the AP.
A donation fund has been established for the victims of the crash and their families.
"We ask for prayers for their recovery and for comfort and strength for all of [the] families and friends and students of those whose lives have been lost," university President Quint Thurman was quoted by KPNX-TV.
According to local news station KWES, the man in the pickup was identified as Henrich Siemens, although neither the 13-year-old's identity nor his relationship with Siemens has been released.
"We grieve with the loved ones of the individuals whose lives were horrifically taken too soon in this fatal vehicle crash near Andrews last night," wrote Texas Governor Greg Abbott in a statement.
Update at 3/17/22, 5:14 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
