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A Texas man with methamphetamine in his system, not his 13-year-old son, was behind the wheel of the pickup truck that crossed into the opposite lane and collided head-on with a van carrying college golf teams from New Mexico, killing nine people, investigators said Thursday.
Initial findings suggested that the 13-year-old boy was driving the pickup truck on a two-lane road in West Texas when it struck the van carrying University of the Southwest men’s and women’s teams and coaches, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said two days after the March 15 collision.
On Thursday, the NTSB said that DNA testing confirmed the boy’s father, 38-year-old Henrich Siemens, was driving the pickup. Toxicological testing also showed the presence of methamphetamine in Siemens’ blood.
The golfers were heading back to New Mexico from a golf tournament at Midland College when the collision happened in Andrews County, which is about 30 miles east of Texas’ border with New Mexico.
The head-on collision happened around 8:20 p.m. on a two-lane road in Andrews County, Texas, on March 15.
(KWES via AP)
Siemens and his son died in the crash along with six members of the men’s and women’s golf teams and their coach.
A golfer drives by a makeshift memorial at the Rockwind Community Links, on March 16, 2022, in Hobbs, New Mexico. The memorial was for student golfers and the coach of University of the Southwest killed in a crash in Texas.
(AP Photo/John Locher, File)
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The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state’s border with Texas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
