NTSB says 13-year-old was driving truck in crash involving University of the Southwest golf teams

HOBBS, N.M. — A 13-year-old was driving the pickup truck that struck a van in West Texas in a fiery collision that killed nine people, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said Thursday.

The truck's left front tire, which was a spare tire, also blew out before impact, he said. Although it was unclear how fast the two vehicles were traveling, «this was clearly a high-speed collision,'' Landsberg said.

One must be 14 in Texas to start taking classroom courses for a learner's license and 15 to receive that provisional license to drive with an instructor or licensed adult in the vehicle. Department of Public Safety Sgt. Victor Taylor said a 13-year-old driving would be breaking the law.

The pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane highway before colliding head-on with a van, killing the boy, a man traveling with him, six New Mexico college students and a golf coach.

The University of the Southwest students, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament when the crash occurred Tuesday night. Two Canadian students were hospitalized in critical condition.

The NTSB sent an investigative team to the crash site in Texas' Andrews County, about 30 miles east of the New Mexico state line.

The men's and women's golf teams were traveling in a 2017 Ford Transit van that was towing a box trailer when it collided with the truck, and both vehicles burst into flames, according to NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss. He said the vehicles collided on a two-lane asphalt highway where the speed limit is 75 mph, though investigators have not yet determined how fast either vehicle was traveling.

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified