FILE – A golfer drives past a makeshift memorial at Rockwind Community Links on March 16, 2022, in Hobbs, New Mexico. The memorial service was for the University of the Southwest golf students and coach who were killed in a crash in Texas. The father of a 13-year-old boy, not the teenager, was driving a pickup truck that hit the squad’s truck, they said Thursday, July 14. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) A Texas man, not his 13-year-old son, was driving the truck that crossed into the oncoming lane and struck a truck carrying golfers at a New Mexico college, killing nine people, and had methamphetamine in his system, investigators said Thursday. The National Transportation Safety Board said two days after the March 15 crash that its initial findings suggest the 13-year-old was driving the pickup that hit the truck carrying students and a coach from Southwest University in Hobbs, New Mexico. Golf Tournament in Midland, Texas. However, the NTSB said in a preliminary report released Thursday that a DNA test confirmed that the father, 38-year-old Henrich Siemens, was driving and that a toxicology test showed the presence of methamphetamine in Siemens’ blood. Siemens and his son died in the crash along with six members of the men’s and women’s golf teams and their coach, who was driving the van. The crash happened at about 8:17 p.m. in Andrews County, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of the Texas border with New Mexico. Although it is a rural area, the roads there are often busy with traffic related to agriculture and oil and gas development. In the days after the crash, the NTSB had said the truck’s left front tire blew out before the crash. But he said Thursday that so far, investigators have found no evidence of a loss in tire pressure or other indicators that the tire failed. The NTSB said the road they were traveling on consisted of one northbound lane and one southbound lane. Near the crash site, the road was straight but there were no highway lights. Those killed in the van were coach Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, New Mexico; and players Mauricio Sanchez, 19, from 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, from Portugal. Two other students in the van were seriously injured. The crash remains under investigation to determine the probable cause of the crash, the NTSB said.
