A Rice University freshman from Vernon Hills was killed on an interstate highway outside Houston when a pickup truck rear-ended a van he was riding in, authorities said Tuesday.
The incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Monday on Interstate Highway 45 about 30 miles north of Houston, according to a news release from the Harris County sheriff’s department.
Two vans carrying the Rice forensics team home from a debate competition in Omaha were slowed by construction that narrowed the southbound lanes to a single lane, the release said. A pickup truck traveling behind the vans was unable to stop and slammed into the rear of the second van, the release said.
Dan Henning, 18, who was seated near the rear of the second van, was pronounced dead at the scene, Rice University spokesman Terry Shepard said.
Two other students were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were in satisfactory condition on Tuesday, Shepard said.
Henning, a member of the university’s nationally ranked debate team, earlier this year won individual first-place honors at a national debate tournament at Webster University in St. Louis, Shepard said.
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No one has yet been charged in the accident, authorities said.