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The father of the two children who were killed after their mother crashed into a flatbed tow truck on the shoulder lane of a highway in Arizona earlier this week is remembering his kids.
Ty Porter shared an emotional Facebook tribute to his 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter on Friday, Oct. 25, writing that the two kids were his “whole world” as he said that being a father “has been the best part of my existence.”
“I will miss you so dearly,” he continued to his kids — who were identified as Tate and Evie in a GoFundMe. “My heart breaks that I cannot wake up to your smiles. That I can’t hear that amazing laugh. That we can’t play catch together. That I can’t cheer you on and coach you from the sidelines any longer…I will miss that I no longer get tuck you in at night and tell you how proud you make me. I will miss giving you daddy snuggles.”
“I hope your Mom, brother and sister will feel your love and now we can be together forever again,” Porter concluded the post, adding, “I love you my too littles.”
Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bart Graves said in a press conference, shared by KNXV-TV earlier this week, that the children’s mother had been in a pickup truck driving on Loop 202 in Mesa when she collided “at a significant rate of speed” with a flatbed tow truck on the shoulder lane with its “emergency flashers on.”
“The force of the impact was such that it not only sheared off the right side of the pickup truck where they were riding but [the pair of children] were killed instantly by the impact,” Graves said, per KPHO-TV. “They didn’t have a chance, and it’s very sad.”
The 36-year-old mother told investigators that she “may have been distracted” around the time of the crash “by what was going on in the vehicle,” per Graves.
He further explained to the outlet that he believed the kids were “playing loudly, roughhousing in the backseat, or some kind of thing that distracted her from the road.”
The woman was hospitalized, while another child — identified as an 11-year-old boy — only had minor injuries from the crash, Graves said.
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“Slow down, pay attention. Do not get distracted by things in your car if you have kids,” he added, per KPHO-TV, on car safety. “Stay off the phone. By all means, do not drive impaired or fatigued either.”
Over $164,000 has been raised on GoFundMe since the incident. The organizer of the family’s fundraising page said the funds will be used to pay off medical and funeral bills.
