Child Driver Kills Himself, and Dad, Along With 7 Others After Striking a Van With the Truck He was Driving
A child driver killed himself, his dad, and seven others after striking a van with the truck he was driving. Authorities said Thursday, the 13-year-old boy was driving a pickup truck that struck a van in Texas and killed nine people, including six New Mexico college golfers, in a blazing collision.
National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Bruce Landsberg said the driver, identified as Ricky Siemens in a Daily Mail report, was illegally driving on a spare tire before it blew out. Tuesday night, the truck slammed head-on into a van carrying golfers from the University of the Southwest.
According to authorities, and Siemens’ heavy-hearted widow, The teen and his 38-year-old dad Henrich Siemens, who also died in the collision, were headed to pick up a new car.
“They were going to pick up a car that [Siemens] bought. I was supposed to see him about two hours later,”
College golfers Mauricio Sanchez, 19, Travis Garcia, 19, Jackson Zinn, 22, Karisa Raines, 21, Laci Stone, 18, and Tiago Sousa, 18, were killed in the crash.
Tyler James, their coach who was driving the Ford van, was also killed.
Officials said the two survivors of the crash, Dayton Price, 19, and Hayden Underhill, 20, are in stable condition.
“This was clearly a high-speed collision,” Landsberg said. How fast they were driving was unclear, he added.
Sgt. Steven Blanco of Texas DPS told The Post cops had ordered toxicology and other forensics reports, although the cause of the crash had not been determined Thursday.
Motorists must be at least 15 years old to receive a provisional license and at least 14 before taking classes to get a learner’s license, Texas law states.
According to the New York Post, the college’s Ford Transit van was heading back from a golf tournament in Midland, where both the women’s and men’s teams were competing and carrying nine people while towing a box trailer.
The accident is still under investigation.
