Officials: 13-year-old was driving truck that crashed into van, leaving 9 people dead


A 13-year-old was driving the pickup truck that crashed into a van carrying golfers from the University of the Southwest on Tuesday night in Texas, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.
Nine people were killed in the head-on collision: the 13-year-old; a 38-year-old male passenger in the truck; six student golfers; and their coach. Two other students are hospitalized in "stable" condition, University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton said Thursday.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said a spare tire on the front left side of the truck blew out before impact, and although it isn't clear how fast the vehicles were going, "this was clearly a high-speed collision." The accident took place on a two-line highway in Andrews County, about 30 miles east of the New Mexico border. The speed limit on the highway is 75 mph.
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In Texas, a person must be at least 14 years old to enroll in driver's education courses for a learner's license and 15 to receive a provisional license, The Associated Press reports.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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