Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers look over the scene of a fatal car wreck early Wednesday. Photo / AP
Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers look over the scene of a fatal car wreck early Wednesday. Photo / AP
The investigation into this week's fiery head-on crash in West Texas now focuses on the revelation that a 13-year-old was driving the ute that struck a van, killing nine people, including six members of a college golf team and their coach.
The young teen, who is still unidentified, and a man travelling in the truck also died.
National Transportation Safety Board vice-chairman Bruce Landsberg on Thursday revealed the truck was driven by the child. He said the truck's left front tyre, which was a spare tyre, had blown out before the impact.
Although it was unclear how fast the two vehicles were travelling, he said, "this was clearly a high-speed collision".
Landsberg said investigators hoped to retrieve enough information from the vehicle's recorders, if they survived, to understand what happened. He said many in the van were not wearing seatbelts and at least one was thrown from the vehicle.
It's not unusual for young teens to drive in that region and other more rural parts of the United States.
But "that was dumb" for a 13-year-old to be driving on a busy two-lane roadway used by oil traffic, said Gib Stevens, who leads area trucking operations for an oilfield servicing company.
One must be 14 in Texas to start taking classroom courses for a learner's licence and 15 to receive that provisional licence to drive with an instructor or licensed adult in the vehicle. Sergeant Victor Taylor of the Department of Public Safety said a 13-year-old driving would be breaking the law.
The ute crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane highway before colliding head-on with a van, killing the boy, a man travelling with him, six New Mexico college students and a golf coach.
The University of the Southwest students, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament when the vehicles collided. Two Canadian students were hospitalised in critical condition.
The NTSB sent an investigative team to the crash site in Texas' Andrews County, about 50km east of the New Mexico state line.
A damaged truck sits on the side of the road at the scene of a fatal car wreck. Photo / AP
University of the Southwest spokeswoman Maria Duarte declined to comment on the NTSB's announcement about the young driver, citing the ongoing investigation.
The golf teams were in a 2017 Ford Transit van towing a box trailer when the collision happened and both vehicles burst into flames, according to NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.
He said the vehicles crashed on an asphalt highway where the speed limit is 120km/h, though investigators have not yet determined how fast either vehicle was travelling.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified those who died as golf coach Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, New Mexico; and players Mauricio Sanchez, 19, of Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colorado; Karisa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.
Also killed were Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, and the 13-year-old boy, who were in the 2007 Dodge 2500 truck.
Critically injured in the van were Canadian students Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario. Both were taken by helicopter to the University Medical Centre in Lubbock, about 180km to the northeast.
(Clockwise from top left) Tiago Sousa, Karissa Raines, Laci Stone, Mauricio Sanchez, Jackson Zinn and Travis Garcia all died in the crash. Photo / University of the Southwest
"They are both stable and recovering and every day making more and more progress," University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton said Thursday of the two injured students.
"One of the students is eating chicken soup," said Tipton, calling their recovery "a game of inches".
Tipton said University president Quint Thurman visited the students' parents at the hospital, illustrating the close community at the college with only about 350 on-campus students.
"Hockey was a big part of life for a while, but his true passion is golf," said Underhill's brother, Drew Underhill.
The Mexican Federation of Golf posted an online note of condolence to the loved ones of Mauricio Sanchez.
Sousa was from Portugal's southern coast, where he graduated from high school last summer before heading to college in the US, said Renata Afonso, head of the Escola Secundaria de Loule.
The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state line with Texas.
A memorial was set up on Wednesday at the course near campus where the team practises, with flowers, golf balls and a handmade sign.
About 150 people turned out on Thursday evening to remember Jackson Zinn at Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant where he worked and met his girlfriend of five months.
"We met here exactly at this table," said Maddy Russell, 20, of Hobbs. "He was my heart."
The mourners released about 100 blue and orange balloons into the cold, whipping wind of eastern New Mexico, and they soon disappeared into the horizon.
The university said on Twitter that counselling and religious services were available on campus.
