New Mexico college golfers, coach killed in Texas highway crash

(Reuters) – Six members of a New Mexico faculty’s males’s and ladies’s golf groups and a coach had been amongst 9 individuals killed in a fiery, head-on collision in West Texas on Tuesday that left two others hospitalized, the varsity and native media mentioned.

The accident occurred when a pickup truck crashed right into a passenger van owned by College of the Southwest, NBC affiliate KWES-TV reported.

USW, a non-public Christian college in Hobbs, New Mexico, mentioned its van was carrying 9 individuals, seven of whom died, and mentioned two others are in important situation at a Texas hospital.

The pickup truck’s driver and passenger additionally died within the crash, which occurred in Andrews County, Texas. It’s not recognized what precipitated the truck to veer into the opposite car, the native TV station reported.

The school mentioned the van was carrying members and the coach of the varsity’s males’s and ladies’s golf groups again to campus from a event in Midland, Texas.

“The USW campus neighborhood is shocked and saddened right now as we mourn the lack of members of our college household,” USW mentioned in a press release.

USW and Texas regulation enforcement each didn’t instantly reply to requests for extra data.

USW golf coach Tyler James was the motive force of the college van, in accordance with Midland Faculty, the Texas college that was internet hosting 11 faculties for a golf event over two days. The second day of play was canceled.

James, the coach who died within the accident, was in his first season as head coach of USW’s golf program, his college bio mentioned.

“It is a devastating loss to that college, and phrases can not categorical how deeply damage we really feel for his or her loss,” Midland Faculty President Steve Thomas mentioned in a press release, and he ordered the varsity’s flag to fly at half-staff by way of Friday to honor the USW groups.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)