HOBBS, N.M. —

       Authorities are trying to determine why a pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane West Texas highway before colliding head-on with a van, killing nine people, including six New Mexico university students and a golf coach, as well as a 13-year-old boy.

       The University of the Southwest students, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament. Also killed in Tuesday evening’s fiery crash were the pickup truck’s driver, while two Canadian students were hospitalized in critical condition.

       The National Transportation Safety Board was sending an investigative team to the crash site in Texas’ Andrews County, about 30 miles east of the New Mexico state line.

       The golf team was traveling 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.

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

       The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the dead as 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, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.

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       Also killed were Henrich Siemans, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, and an unidentified 13-year-old boy who had been traveling with him in the 2007 Dodge 2500 pickup.

       Critically injured aboard the van were Canadian students Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario. Both were taken by helicopter to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, about 110 miles to the northeast.

       Underhill’s brother Drew said their parents, Ken and Wendy, were on a plane headed 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.”

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       No students were hurt by the crash, authorities said, adding that mental health therapists would be on the campus Thursday to help students and staff as needed.

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

       Stone’s mother wrote of her loss on Facebook on 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 university golf team’s website.

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       Golf 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, N.M., near the state line with Texas.

       A memorial was set up Wednesday at the course near campus where the team practices. There were flowers, golf balls and a handmade sign with a cross and the initials USW.

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       The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m. at Sunset Boulevard and Allenford Avenue, police said.

       The team had been taking part in a golf tournament at Midland College, about 315 miles west of Dallas. Eleven schools were participating in the event.

       “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,” University of the Southwest President Quint Thurman said in a statement.