ANDREWS COUNTY, Texas — The driver of a pickup that hit a van in a fiery West Texas crash, killing nine people including a golfer from Westminster, was not a 13-year-old, as was previously thought, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday.
DNA and toxicological testing showed the pickup driver was the boy's father, a 38-year-old man who had methamphetamine in his blood, according to a new NTSB report on the collision in March in Andrews County, Texas.
Previously, the NTSB said a 13-year-old was the driver, but further investigation showed that the boy was a passenger.
The crash happened about 8:15 p.m. March 15 on a two-lane road in Andrews County, Texas, which is about 30 miles east of the New Mexico state line.
The 2007 Dodge 2500 pickup collided head-on with a 2017 Ford transit van carrying members of the University of the Southwest men's and women's golf teams. The coach and six students died, as did both occupants of the pickup. Two other students were seriously injured.
Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, was among those who died in the crash.
> The video above about Jackson Zinn aired on March 17.
The other eight people killed were:
- Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, New Mexico
- Maurico Sanchez, 19, of Mexico
- Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas
- Karissa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas
- Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas
- Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal
- A 13-year-old boy from Seminole, Texas
- Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole, Texas, who was driving the pickup truck
The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state line with Texas.
The investigation hasn't found evidence of a sudden loss of air pressure or any other failures in the pickup's front left tire, NTSB said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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