The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released new information about who was driving the 2007 Dodge pickup truck that crashed into the passenger van carrying members of the University of the Southwest’s golf team on March 15.
The Lea County Tribune earlier reported that nine, including the university’s golf coach, six of its golfers and the two occupants of the 2007 Dodge pickup, were killed in the mishap.
The University of the Southwest is located in Hobbs, and the university’s women’s and men’s golf teams were traveling back to Hobbs from a golf tournament in Midland, Texas when the accident occurred.
Henrich Siemens Driver of the Dodge Pickup
According to a KOAT 7 Action News report, the preliminary, post-crash report released by the NTSB states that DNA testing has revealed that Henrich Siemens, age 38, was driving the Dodge pickup truck that slammed into the golf team’s van.
The new finding contradicts an earlier report that Siemens’s 13-year-old son was driving the pickup when the crash occurred. NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg earlier stated that the boy was illegally driving the pickup on a spare tire when the tire blew out. The pickup, then, crashed head-on into the van carrying the University of the Southwest golfers. Allegedly Landsberg’s original statement was inaccurate.
Other NTSB Findings
The NTSB post-crash report, additionally, states that the toxicological testing that was done after the crash concludes that the “blood of the driver of the pickup truck tested positive for methamphetamine.”
The NTSB, further, states that it “…has not found any evidence of any sudden or rapid loss of pressure or any indication of catastrophic failure of the pickup truck’s front left tire.”
The NTSB has also found that the pickup truck “…crossed into the northbound lane of Texas Farm-to-Market Road 1788 and collided head-on with the passenger van.” Both vehicles caught fire after the collision and were destroyed.
According to the NTSB the two-lane road where the crash occurred has a posted speed limit of 75 mph.
The NTSB investigation of the crash is ongoing. To date a determination of the cause of the accident has not been made. After determining the accident’s cause, the NTSB plans to issue “…safety recommendations to prevent future events.”
