Two Ontario students in ‘stable’ condition after deadly crash in Texas

Two students from Ontario are recovering in hospital following a deadly crash between a pickup truck and a van carrying a college golf team in Texas.

Nine people were killed in the crash and the two Canadians who suffered critical injuries are now considered “stable.”

University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton says Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ont., and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ont., are “recovering and every day making more and more progress” following Tuesday’s crash.

They were aboard the van on their way home from a golf tournament on Tuesday evening when the vehicle and a pickup truck collided head-on.

“They are both stable and recovering and every day making more and more progress,” University of the Southwest Provost Ryan Tipton said Thursday of the two injured students.

“One of the students is eating chicken soup,” said Tipton, calling their recovery “a game of inches.”

Six members of the New Mexico college’s golf team died in the collision, as did a coach.

A 38-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy from the pickup truck – which authorities allege crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane highway – also died.

The golf teams were travelling in a 2017 Ford Transit van that was towing a box trailer when it collided with the truck, and both vehicles burst into flames, according to NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.

He said the vehicles collided on a two-lane asphalt highway where the speed limit is 75 mph (120 kph), though investigators have not yet determined how fast either vehicle was travelling.

University president visits Ontario students

Tipton said University President Quint Thurman personally visited the students’ parents at the hospital, illustrating the close community at the college that has only about 350 on-campus students.

Underhill’s brother Drew said their parents, Ken and Wendy, flew to Texas.

“Hockey was a big part of life for a while, but his true passion is golf,” Drew Underhill said. “From a small town in Ontario, he’s doing OK.”

The Mexican Federation of Golf posted an online note of condolence to the loved ones of Mauricio Sanchez.

Sousa was from Portugal’s southern coast, where he graduated from high school last summer before heading to college in the U.S., said Renata Afonso, head of the Escola Secundária de Loulé.

“Any school would be delighted to have had him as a student,” she said.

A makeshift memorial to the student golfers and University of the Southwest golf coach killed in Tuesday’s crash in Texas is displayed on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, at the Rockwind Community Links in Hobbs, New Mexico. Photo courtesy: (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

“We don’t know what happened”

Stone’s mother wrote of her loss on Facebook Wednesday.

“She has been an absolute ray of sunshine during this short time on earth,” Chelsi Stone said in a post. “We will never be the same after this and we just don’t understand how this happened to our amazing, beautiful, smart, joyful girl.”

Stone graduated in 2021 from Nocona High School, where she played golf, volleyball and softball. She was a freshman majoring in global business management, according to her biography on the golf team’s website.

James’ mother, June James, said she knew little about the circumstances of the collision. He coached the men and the women.

“We don’t know what happened. It’s a huge investigation. We don’t have any idea as of yet,” James said during a brief phone interview.

Team member Jasmin Collum had been scheduled to play but at the last minute decided instead to visit her parents in Houston, her mother said.

“We knew all those people on board,” Tonya Collum said. “Basically the whole team is gone or in the hospital.”

The University of the Southwest is a private, Christian college located in Hobbs, New Mexico, near the state line with Texas.

Tipton, the college provost, said the college does “an outstanding and amazing job of recruiting” international students for its athletics program.

With files from The Canadian Press