ANDREWS, Texas (AP) — A vehicle carrying members of the University of the Southwest’s golf teams collided head-on with a pickup truck on a two-lane road in West Texas, killing multiple people including some students and the teams’ coach, officials said.
The vehicles crashed Tuesday night in Andrews County and Sgt. Steven Blanco of the Texas Department of Public Safety told KWES-TV there were fatalities in both vehicles, but the number of dead wasn’t immediately released.
“It’s a very tragic scene,” Blanco said. “It’s very, very tragic.”
The bus or van was transporting members of the New Mexico university’s men’s and women’s golf teams from a tournament, Blanco said, and the other vehicle involved was a Ford F-150.
University President Quint Thurman said in a statement to NBC News that the vehicle was driven by the teams’ coach and carried about seven to nine students. He said the coach and some students were among the dead.
“We are still learning the details about the accident but we are devastated and deeply saddened to learn about the loss of our students’ lives and their coach,” Thurman said in the statement.
Thurman said two students “with serious injuries” were airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock.
The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state’s border with Texas. The teams had been scheduled to play in a tournament Tuesday at Midland College, about 315 miles (505 kilometers) west of Dallas.
The university said on Twitter that it was working to notify family members of those involved in the crash, and counseling and religious services would be available on campus.
The Associated Press left a message early Wednesday seeking additional information from the university.
The crash happened in the same area — but not the same roadway — where three people were killed in November when a pickup truck crashed into a school bus carrying members of the Andrews High School band.
The high school’s band director, the school bus driver and the driver of the pickup truck all died in that crash.
