Eight of the nine people killed in a fiery crash between their van and a wrong-way Ford F150 driver have been named by officials investigating the tragedy.
The victims include seven members of the University of the South West men’s and women’s golf teams, as well as their 26 year-old coach.
Students Laci Stone, 19 and Karisa Raines, 21, were identified by their grieving relatives following the Wednesday smash in Andrews County, Texas.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the other fatalities of the van the women were traveling in as Mauricio Sanchez, 19, of , Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas, Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.USW golf coach Tyler James was also killed.
The driver of the truck that crashed into the students was carrying Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole, and an unidentified 13-year-old who was with him. Neither survived.
Stone, 19, was returning with her teammates and coach to New Mexico from a tournament in Texas when the crash happened when she was killed, her devastated mom Chelsi Stone said.Karisa Raines, 21, was also named as one of those killed by her family.
USW golf coach Tyler James (right) and women’s golfers Laci Stone (center) and Karisa Raines (right) all died
Travis Garcia, left, Mauricio Sanchez, center and Tiago Sousa, right, also died
Jackson Zinn was killed in the smash on Wednesday morning
Hayden Underhill, left, and Dayton Price, right were the only two survivors in the USW van
Stone’s mother, Chelsi Stone, revealed on Facebook that her daughter was among the dead.
‘I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy,’ Chelsi Stone wrote in a post.’Last night Laci’s golf team was involved in a crash leaving a golf tournament. Our sweet Laci didn’t make it. We are still waiting for a lot of details but as of right now that’s all I have. That our Laci is gone!’
Chelsi added that her late daughter had ‘a heart the size of Texas.’
Relatives of Raines, a 21-year-old junior at USW, PTS Terbaik ASEAN said she was ‘a beautiful and kind soul who will be deeply missed by everyone.’
The crash left two other students, Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario, Canada were critically injured in the collision. Price suffered third-degree burns to nearly half of his body, according to the description of a campaign.
The University of Southwest said in an update early Wednesday morning that the bus was carrying eight members of the men’s and women’s golf teams, and coach Tyler James, who was behind the wheel, when it was struck by a truck head-on in Andrews County on Tuesday night.
Photos taken at the scene during the daytime showed the catastrophic impact of the collision, which has left the charred, mangled remnants of the bus and the pickup truck lying shattered on the side of a rural road.
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The twisted, charred wreckage of a bus sits on the side of the road at the scene of a fatal crash in Andrews County, Texas, that killed nine people, including six college golfers from New Mexico
Texas Department of Public Safety said this Ford F-150 for an unknown reason went the wrong way and smashed into the bus head-on. The driver and passenger of the truck died
Two of the eight students from the University of the Southwest who were on board the bus survived and were hospitalized
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers look over the scene of the fatal wreck on Wednesday
Laci Stone, a freshman at the University of the Southwest in New Mexico, has been identified by her mother as one of the six student golfers who died in a fiery crash in Texas on Tuesday
Also killed in the crash was Karisa Raines, 21.She was a junior majoring in biology
Coach Tyler James (right) was in his first season as the head coach of the men’s and women’s golf program
A pickup truck crossed the center line of a two-lane road and smashed into the bus head-on
Sgt.Steven Blanco, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the Ford F-150 crossed the center line of a two-lane road and smashed into the bus.
Six students and James were killed along with the driver and a passenger in the pickup truck, Blanco said.Two students were taken by helicopter to a Lubbock hospital in critical condition.
Team member Jasmin Collum had been scheduled to play but at the last minute decided instead to visit her parents in Houston, her mother said.
‘Otherwise, who knows?’ Tonya Collum said.’I told her God has a plan for her and that’s why she’s OK. We knew all those people on board. Basically the whole team is gone or in the hospital.’
Blanco said the crash occurred at around 8:17 p.m. about nine miles from the city of Andrews, found northwest of Midland-Odessa.
‘Both suffered extremely heavy damage,’ Blanco told NBC affiliate KWES of Midland.
‘It’s a very tragic scene,’ Blanco added.’It’s very, very tragic.’
The wreckage of a truck is seen in Andrew County, Texas, late Tuesday following a fatal collision that killed nine people in two vehicles
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He said that the university-owned bus was travelling from a golf tournament in West Texas, and described it as a passenger van.
The teams had been scheduled to play in a tournament on Tuesday at Midland College, about 315 miles west of Dallas.
The National Transportation Safety Board will send a 12-member ‘go team’ to the crash site, including experts in human performance, vehicle and motor carrier factors and accident reconstruction, agency spokesman Eric Weiss said.The team is expected to arrive later Wednesday, he said.
‘We´ll try to find out not only what happened, but why it happened, so we can possibly prevent things like this from happening in the future,’ he said.
The golf team was traveling in a 2017 Ford Transit van that was towing a box trailer when it collided with a 2007 Dodge pickup truck, Weiss said.Both vehicles caught fire after the collision, he said, calling it a ‘high-energy event.’
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Facebook that she is «deeply saddened» by the loss of life.
‘This is a terrible accident.As we await additional information from authorities, my prayers are with the community and the loved ones of all those involved,’ she said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also expressed sympathy.
‘We grieve with the loved ones of the individuals whose lives were horrifically taken too soon in this fatal vehicle crash near Andrews last night,’ Abbott said.
According to her biography on the golf team’s page, Laci Stone graduated from Nocona High School in Texas last year and was majoring in global business management at USW.She is survived by her parents, Chelsi and Haydan, and her two siblings, Johnathan and Kaygan.
‘She has been an absolute ray of sunshine during this short time on earth,’ her mom wrote in her Facebook tribute. ‘Haydan, Johnathan, Kaygan and I are absolutely devastated.We will never be the same after this and we just don’t understand how this happened to our amazing, beautiful, smart, joyful girl.’
Chelsi Stone shared that right before Laci returned to college after a break, she had begged her mom to get matching heart tattoos.
Laci Stone graduated from Nocona High School in Texas last year and was majoring in global business management at USW
Laci’s mom, Chelsi (left), on Wednesday shared a photo of her and Laci showing off their new matching heart tattoos
‘I almost chickened out because I’m a baby but I went through with it,’ the grieving mom of three wrote.’I’m so forever grateful that God gave me the courage to go through with it and always have this memory with her.’
Karisa Raines was a native of Fort Stockton, Texas. She was a junior at the University of the Southwest, majoring in biology.Her dream was to become a forensic scientist. According to her team bio, Raines is survived by her parents and a sibling.
Dayton Price, who is on the men’s golf team, is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Lubbock for third-degree burns.A native of Ontario, Canada, he entered USW as a freshman, majoring in sports management.
University President Quint Thurman said earlier: ‘We are still learning the details about the accident but we are devastated and deeply saddened to learn about the loss of our students’ lives and their coach.’
‘My understanding is that two of our students have survived and have been airlifted to University hospital in Lubbock with serious injuries,’ Thurman added.
‘We would ask for prayers for their recovery and for comfort and strength for all of families and friends and students of those whose lives have been lost.’
Thurman named the coach as Tyler James, who was entering his first season as a coach of the men’s and women’s golf teams, according to an online biography.
The university confirmed the crash in a post of shortly after midnight on Wednesday, calling the crash ‘fatal’.
University of Southwest’s golfers were returning from a competition in Texas when their bus collided head on with a Ford F-150 on 1788
The University of the Southwest confirmed the crash in a post on Facebook (pictured)
Pictured: A sign at the University of the Southwest, based in Hobbs, New Mexico (file photo)
‘The University of the Southwest can confirm that there has been a fatal bus accident involving the USW men’s and women’s golf teams,’ the statement said.
‘The university is currently attempting to notify family members of those involved in the accident. Counseling and religious services will be available to students, faculty, and staff on campus. The university will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available,’ it added.
An investigation into the cause of the crash is on-going.
James was in his first season as the head coach of the men’s and women’s golf program.
The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state’s border with Texas.
The crash happened in the same area — but not the same roadway — where three people were killed in November when a pickup truck crashed into a school bus carrying members of the Andrews High School band.
The high school’s band director, the school bus driver and the driver of the pickup truck all died in that crash.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news" data-version="2" id="mol-6c71ada0-a5d1-11ec-beb9-f9f98589f242" website Six USW golf team members and their coach killed in smash