HOBBS, N.M. (AP) — Authorities investigating a fiery crash in West Texas don’t know why a 13-year-old boy was driving while his father was sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup truck that crossed into the oncoming lane and collided with a passenger truck, causing… It killed nine people.
The young teenager, who has not been identified, died in the crash along with his father, 38-year-old Henrik Siemens, and his father. Six members of the New Mexico College golf team and their coach. The cause remains under investigation, although National Transportation Safety Board officials said the truck’s front tire, a spare, exploded before the crash.
It’s the latest tragedy for a father-son family in Seminole, Texas.
Community members first rallied around Siemens and his wife, Agatha, in October, when a kitchen fire destroyed the home they had lived in for a decade. Seminole is a rural community of about 7,500 people, some of whom first moved to the area in the 1970s with other Mennonite families who started farming and ranching operations.
While the couple and their children escaped the fire without injuries, Agatha wrote on her Facebook page at the time that they had lost everything, including one of the family pets.
After the accident, Agatha Siemens shared family photos on social media, saying that her husband was the love of her life and that she missed her son. She did not respond to messages seeking comment.
NTSB Deputy Chairman Bruce Landsberg revealed Thursday that the truck was driven by the child.
After the tire blew, the pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on the dark, two-lane highway before colliding with the truck. Both vehicles caught fire.
Although it wasn’t clear how fast the two vehicles were moving, “it was clearly a high-speed collision,” Landsberg said.
According to the agency, the speed limit at the crash site is 75 mph (120 km/h).
Investigators hope to get enough information from the vehicle recorders, if they survive, to understand what happened, Landsberg said. He said many in the truck were not wearing seat belts, and at least one of them was ejected from the vehicle.
It is not unusual for teens to drive young adults In that area and other rural areas of the United States. A person must be 14 years old in Texas to begin taking coursework for a learner’s license and 15 years old to obtain that provisional license to drive with an instructor or licensed adult in the vehicle.
Investigators have not yet determined why the young man was behind the wheel, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Stephen Blanco said Friday.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigation team to the crash site in Andrews County, Texas, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of the New Mexico state line.
The Southwest University students, including a student from Portugal and another from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament in Midland, Texas, when the two vehicles collided Tuesday night. Two Canadian students were taken to hospital in critical condition.
Southwestern University spokeswoman Maria Duarte declined to comment on the NTSB’s announcement about the young driver, citing the ongoing investigation. The private Christian college is located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the Texas state line.
The two golf teams were traveling in a 2017 Ford Transit truck that was towing a box trailer when it collided with a 2007 Dodge 2500 truck, according to NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the deceased as: golf coach Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, New Mexico; The players are Mauricio Sanchez, 19, from Aguascalientes, Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zane, 22, of Westminster, Colorado; Carissa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Lacey Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Thiago Souza, 18, from Algarve, Portugal.
Two Canadian students, Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario, were seriously injured on board the truck. They were flown by helicopter to Lubbock, about 110 miles (180 kilometers) to the northeast.
“They are stable and recovering, and are making more and more progress every day,” Southwestern University Dean Ryan Tipton said Thursday.
“One student eats chicken soup,” Tipton said, describing their recovery as a “game of inches.”
University President Quint Thurman visited parents of students at the hospital, Tipton said, explaining the close community at the college, which has only about 350 students on campus.
A memorial was created Wednesday at the golf course near campus where the team practices, with flowers, golf balls and a handmade banner. Counseling and religious services were provided on campus.
About 150 people gathered Thursday evening to remember Jackson Zane at Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant where he worked and where he met his girlfriend of five months.
“We met right here at this table,” said Maddie Russell, 20, of Hobbs. “It was my heart.”
Mourners released about 100 blue and orange balloons into the cold winds of eastern New Mexico, which quickly disappeared over the horizon.
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Bleed was reported from Little Rock, Arkansas and Snow from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Stengel in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, Rob Gillis in Toronto and Barry Hutton in Lisbon contributed to this report.
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Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
