‘I miss him every second of the day’: 11-year-old boy dies in crash after tire blows out on interstate

TUCSON, AZ. (KPHO/Gray News) - A mother in Arizona is mourning the loss of her 11-year-old son after he died in a crash after their tire blew out on the interstate, according to authorities.

It all happened on August 13 on I-10, KPHO reported.

Irene Harms and her son Noley were on their way home to Tucson after visiting Phoenix for a doctor’s appointment.

Harms told KPHO that they stopped at the gas station to get snacks and were heading eastbound on the I-10 when their tire blew out, throwing them into a ditch off the freeway and then back into the lanes before a pickup truck hit them in the same direction.

“That noise was as loud as it could be and I grabbed the wheel as hard as I could,” she said.

Irene said the car rolled multiple times, landing on its roof.

“As we’re flipping I’m sticking my arm out and trying to find him,” she said.

She said she dragged herself out the window through broken glass to try to get Noley. Good samaritans tried to help, but it was too late.

“I knew he was gone even though no one was telling me he was gone, but he had to be gone because why are they all trying to help me and not him,” she said. “I fell back and laid on the asphalt in the glass and stared at the sky and said, ‘Ok I’m ready. I’m ready to go too.’

Through the immediate heartbreak and chaos, Irene said a paramedic saved her life, not by his physical actions but by his words.

“He said, ‘Listen, I lost a child recently. I know what you’re going through.’ I said, ‘How are you still here? How are you here doing this?’ And he said, ‘Do you have other children?’ And that completely flipped a switch in my head because I realized I had two baby boys at home, five and six, that had no idea what was happening and couldn’t lose mommy and brother.”

Irene staying strong for her family. She describes Noley as a one-of-a-kind little boy, too good for this world.

“I miss him every second of the day,” she said.

Irene has a broken back and ribs with gashes on her arms and down her back and legs. She was just released from the hospital on Friday morning.

The family has a GoFundMe created to help with Noley’s funeral expenses.

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