NTSB issues final report on University of the Southwest golf team crash

Jan. 19—The National Transportation Safety Board has issued a final report for the 2022 crash that killed nine members of the University of the Southwest golf team and a father and son in a 2007 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck.

The pickup was traveling southbound on Farm to Market (FM) Road 1788 in Andrews, crossed the centerline and collided nearly head-on with a northbound 2017 Ford Transit 350 van towing a 2019 trailer. The impact initiated a post-crash fire that consumed the van and the pickup truck. Seven occupants of the van and two occupants of the pickup truck died, and two van passengers were seriously injured.

Golf coach Tyler James, 26, of Hobbs, N.M.; and players Mauricio Sanchez, 19, of Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colo.; Karisa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal died in the fiery crash.

Critically injured aboard the van were Canadian students Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario.

Also killed were the driver of the pickup, Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole, and his 13-year-old son. An NTSB official said in July 2022, toxicological of Siemens indicated the presence of methamphetamine in his blood.

It was first reported that the 13-year-old was driving the pickup, but NTSB reported in 2022 that DNA testing results provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety determined the driver of the pickup truck involved in the head-on crash was not the boy but his father.

"We determined that the probable cause of the Andrews, Texas, crash was the pickup truck driver's excessive speed and his crossing into the oncoming lane of travel, likely because of impairment from methamphetamine use," the report said.

NTSB investigators examined roadway documentation, as well as vehicle damage and interviewed witnesses to ascertain the crash sequence and the reason for the pickup truck driver's centerline crossover. The crash occurred in the northbound travel lane. The roadway evidence at this location showed a large area of burnt asphalt encompassing the northbound lane and its shoulder. The roadway evidence included road gouge marks, metal scrapes, fluid stains, and dirt furrows.

Investigators identified the first precrash roadway evidence, the onset of a tire friction mark determined to be from the left front tire of the pickup truck, about 73 feet north of the location of impact. The friction mark started in the northbound lane about 1.8 feet from the white edge line (shoulder line) and continued in a shallow rightward arc to the point of impact, 6.6 feet from the shoulder line. The friction mark indicates that the pickup truck was traveling south in the northbound travel lane but was moving back toward the southbound travel lane at the time of impact with the transit van.

The nearly head-on impact caused both vehicles to rotate counterclockwise. The van came to rest in the northbound lane at the impact location but rotated while the pickup truck came to rest off the roadway, southwest of the impact location. The trailer separated from the van at impact and came to rest off the roadway, east of the location of the van. Both the van and the pickup truck sustained catastrophic intrusion damage and were consumed by postcrash fire. The trailer sustained impact damage to the left-front corner and limited thermal damage on the left side, the report said.

The NTSB interviewed the driver of a vehicle that traveled immediately behind the van for about 10 miles. The witness did not observe anything unusual about the movement of the van and he also reported traveling at speeds of 70-75 mph. The investigation did not identify any witnesses that had observed the pickup truck earlier in the trip or leading up to its centerline crossover, the report detailed.

As a result of the crash and the postcrash fire, both occupants of the pickup truck died. The van driver and six of the van passengers also died, while the remaining two van passengers sustained serious injuries. According to autopsy reports for the two occupants of the pickup truck and the van driver, all three died from blunt force and thermal injuries.

Two van passengers were ejected during the crash; one of them—seated in the front passenger seat—died, while the other ejected passenger—originally seated in the third row on the right—sustained serious injuries. The second seriously injured passenger self-extricated, the report said.

All seating positions in both vehicles were equipped with lap/shoulder belts. Based on a buckled latch plate located next to the front passenger seat of the pickup truck, the pickup truck passenger likely wore the available lap/shoulder belt at the time of the crash. NTSB investigators found an unbuckled latch plate at the crash scene next to the at-rest location of the pickup truck, suggesting that the pickup truck driver was likely unbelted. Based on the interview with one of the surviving van passengers, the van driver wore the available lap/shoulder belt, but none of the passengers were belted, the report stated.

The Andrews County Sheriff's Department dispatcher was notified of the crash at 8:18 p.m. through a 911 call and immediately dispatched ACSD patrol units, the first of which arrived on scene at 8:25 p.m. The dispatcher notified the Texas Department of Public Safety, Andrews County Volunteer Fire Department, Andrews County Fire Marshall, and Andrews County Emergency Medical Services, whose first units arrived on scene 2-3 minutes after the first ACSD patrol unit.

The incident commander requested the first medical evacuation (medevac) helicopter immediately upon arrival at 8:27 p.m., and the second 10 minutes later; they arrived at a landing zone by 9:24 p.m. The two medevac helicopters transported the two van occupants with serious injuries to local hospitals, the last of which arrived at 11:16 p.m., the report said.

Considering the limited information obtained from the witness and that the postcrash fire destroyed all recording modules, the NTSB conducted a simulation of the crash to determine an approximate speed of the two vehicles. The simulation was based on the available roadway evidence, including the tire friction mark that indicated the preimpact path of the pickup truck, location of impact, weight of the vehicles (including the trailer), measured friction of the roadway, contact damage on the vehicles, and final rest positions of the pickup truck, the van, and the trailer.

The 38-year-old driver held a Texas class C driver's license with no endorsements or restrictions. According to his wife, the driver worked as a mechanic and owned a trucking company. He obtained his first driver's license in 2011. His driving history shows numerous traffic violations, some of which occurred before he obtained his driver's license. In the 10-year period before the crash, the pickup truck driver had 23 traffic violations, 10 of which related to driving without a license or with a suspended license, and 9 of which were for speeding; one of the speeding violations (from 2016) involved traveling 105 mph in a 75-mph zone. The pickup truck driver had one driving-while-intoxicated violation that occurred in 2006. His most recent license suspension occurred in May 2018; the license remained suspended until May 2019. The driver was involved in one other crash, which occurred in 2012, the report said.

In the interview with NTSB investigators, the wife of the pickup truck driver stated that, on the day of the crash, her husband woke up sometime in the afternoon because he worked late the previous day. She also stated that he, along with their son, had left their home in Seminole about 20 minutes before the crash. Examination of the pickup truck driver's cell phone records showed that he was not using his cell phone at the time of the crash.

Postmortem toxicology testing of the pickup truck driver's femoral blood, performed by NMS Labs, identified methamphetamine at a concentration of 1,900 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and amphetamine, a methamphetamine metabolite, at a concentration of 250 ng/mL. At the NTSB's request, the Federal Aviation Administration Forensic Sciences Laboratory also tested the pickup truck driver's femoral blood for methamphetamine and amphetamine, identifying them at 1,949 ng/mL and at 185 ng/mL, respectively, the report detailed.

The university's Vehicle Use and Transportation Policy included minimum hiring requirements for drivers and a prohibition for using cell phones while driving. However, this policy did not contain any training requirements for coaches or other university employees and did not include any requirements for pretrip safety briefings or mandatory seat belt use for all occupants.

The postcrash compliance review of the university by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration identified 12 safety violations, 3 of which were critical. The review resulted in a conditional safety rating for the university. The university had no roadside inspections.

After the crash, University of the Southwest informed NTSB investigators that it had outsourced most of its student transportation and had signed a provider contract with a bus company. The university also stated that any future transportation of students that may be conducted by the university would be carried out in a passenger vehicle or a van without a trailer, which would not require the university to adhere to regulations pertaining to commercial motor vehicles. The university also reported that it no longer owned the two buses that required a CDL to operate and that it had amended its Vehicle Use and Transportation Policy to include a pretrip seat belt use statement, the report said.

The final report discusses lessons learned.

"Driving above the speed limit or too fast for conditions is dangerous on its own, but as this crash has exemplified, speeding is particularly dangerous when combined with impairment. In 2021, about 60% of roadway fatalities in the United States were attributed to speeding and/or alcohol impairment (NHTSA 2023). The NTSB has adopted a multi-faceted approach in addressing these risks, including issuing safety recommendations related to vehicle technologies — impairment detection systems, advanced driver monitoring systems, and intelligent speed assistance — as well as improving toxicological testing and enforcing speeding violations," the report issued Jan. 11 said.