After chasing storms in Kansas, three University of Oklahoma meteorology students died in a car accident as they were returning to Oklahoma last Friday.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the three were heading southbound on Interstate 35 near the Kansas border when their Volkswagen Tiguan hydroplaned and blocked the outside lane.

A semi hit the students’ vehicle, trapping them for over five hours before first responders could retrieve their bodies. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver was transported to a local hospital and was treated and released.

The University of Oklahoma students were identified as Drake Brooks, 22, of Evansville, Indiana; Nicholas Nair, 20, of Denton, Texas; and Gavin Short, 19, of Grayslake, Illinois.

Soon after the news broke that the students died, teachers, family, and friends shared their thoughts and offered their condolences.

According to Leigh O’Neil, a fellow meteorology student, the boys were the “kindest, smartest people” she had ever encountered. “They truly would do anything to help others out, even before their own well-being. … They are already missed greatly. Their loss is insanely painful for us all.”

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Kate Nair, victim Nicholas Nair’s mother, talked about her son’s passion for weather to WFAA.

“Storm chasing was his passion,” said Nair. “Broadcasting was his passion.”

On Saturday night, The New York Times spoke by phone with Mara Davis, another meteorologist student at OU who was friends with the victims.

Davis said that the meteorology cohort was close and had formed a “20-person best friend group.” She texted friends on Saturday to come to her apartment, so they could be together after hearing about the accident.

The crash occurred not long after Nair and Short posted a video to Twitter of a tornado they filmed in Herington, Kansas.

In Norman, Oklahoma, the National Weather Service released a weather balloon dedicated to the students.

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