KAY COUNTY, Okla. (WEHT) — Three University of Oklahoma students passed away Friday night after their vehicle was hit by a semi-truck during severe weather conditions. One of those students, Central High School graduate Drake Brooks, was an Evansville native.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials confirm Drake H. Brooks, 22, of Evansville, Nicholas K. Nair, 20, of Denton, Texas and Gavin A. Short, 19, of Grayslake, Ill., all died at the scene of the crash on Intestate 35 South.
The three students were heading south on I-35 in rainy weather, when around 11:23 p.m. the vehicle hydroplaned, lost control and went off the right side of the road. The vehicle reentered the road to the left and became disabled, blocking the outside lane, OHP officials said.
According to officials, a Freightliner tractor-trailer heading south on I-35 crashed into their vehicle. All three men were pinned for approximately 5 hours and 26 minutes inside the car, officials say. Tonkawa Fire and EMS officials freed their bodies from the wreckage.
Brooks and the other two men were meteorology students at the University of Oklahoma and had been recording storm events in Kansas. He was a senior at OU.
