Son Reveals What Caused Crash That Killed His Parents and Injured 2 Younger Siblings on College Drop-Off Trip

A rising sophomore, whose parents and siblings were accompanying him to college, feared the worst when he arrived at the scene of a deadly crash on a North Carolina highway.

“When I arrived at the scene, I thought all four were gone,” 19-year-old Noah Nunney tells PEOPLE. “They wouldn’t let me out of the car, and the way they sat me down—the look on the officer’s face—was truly horrifying.”

Noah was informed that his mother, Maria Galindo Nunney, 50, had died, while his father, Donald Nunney, 55, was airlifted to a hospital. His younger siblings, Leo, 9, and Lucia, 15, were taken by ambulance to a different facility.

At the hospital, Noah received limited information about his siblings. He later learned that his father had suffered a heart attack behind the wheel and passed away within five minutes of arriving at the hospital.

“They didn’t even have to perform an autopsy because all signs pointed to a heart attack,” Noah says. “He was driving, had a heart attack, and they swerved off the road.”

After coming to terms with the deaths of his parents, Noah says he focused on “whatever I can do to make sure the kids are okay.” “Since then,” he adds, “that’s been my main priority.”

On Thursday, Aug. 14, Donald and Maria, both teachers from Cleveland, drove from Ohio to take Noah to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the start of the school year. The next day, the family—including their two youngest children—left their hotel to meet Noah on campus. Their other son, Diego, 18, stayed behind in Cleveland due to work commitments.

The Nunneys planned to have lunch together and spend time on campus before returning home on Saturday.

“My sister is a big fan of the show The Summer I Turned Pretty, which was filmed on UNC campus,” Noah says. He had hoped to give his family a tour of the college and show Lucia some of the filming locations, but they didn’t get the chance.

That afternoon, Noah checked his sister’s location and saw that they were about 37 minutes away from campus, on track to arrive around their scheduled meet-up time of 1:30 p.m.

Waiting in his dorm room with friends, Noah noticed the pickup time passed and Lucia’s location hadn’t changed. Unable to reach his family by phone, he sensed something was wrong. He asked a friend to drive him to their location.

Unbeknownst to Noah, around 1:18 p.m., the family’s vehicle “ran off the right side of the roadway … [and] struck several small trees,” a spokesperson for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol previously told PEOPLE. The car then traveled down an embankment and collided with a large tree.

Donald, who was driving, and Maria, who was in the passenger seat, were killed. Their two younger children survived but were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Noah later learned that his brother suffered broken arms and legs and had been placed on a ventilator. While Leo survived the night, Noah’s sister had brain bruising, and he wasn’t immediately sure she would pull through. By the following afternoon, however, she was on the path to recovery.

“Seeing them improve has really helped me mentally with the whole situation,” Noah says.

Since the accident, Noah says he has “never felt alone.” Within minutes of arriving at the hospital, two staff members from his scholarship program, Morehead-Cain, arrived, along with his roommate. By Friday night, family and friends from both sides had arrived or were on their way to support Donald and Maria’s children. College staff also helped organize food, housing, and essentials as the siblings recovered.

Leo has now been taken off a ventilator and is expected to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, Lucia is able to stand and converse, though she hasn’t yet learned of her parents’ deaths.

Even as the siblings recover physically, they face the emotional reality of losing both parents. Noah says it has been comforting to see the outpouring of love from former students and the local community. “All the friends I grew up with were texting me afterward, saying it felt like their parent had died,” he shares.

Donald taught at Joseph M. Gallagher Elementary, and Maria worked at Wilbur Wright Elementary School, a spokesperson for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District confirms.

The Sunday following the crash, Aug. 17, Lennox Thompson, principal of Joseph M. Gallagher, sent a heartfelt letter to staff and students: “They both were well known in Cleveland, in their own community, and moreover, well respected and will be missed.”

Though Noah is uncertain about the long-term care of his siblings, he hopes to see them return to sports. He plans to take a semester off but intends to graduate, saying, “I know that’s what my parents would’ve wanted.”

For now, Noah is focusing on honoring the generous, loving parents who raised their children to excel in everything they do. He recalls the moment his parents dropped him off at college as especially meaningful.

“It was the first time they saw me as an adult,” he says. “They saw me, truthfully, as more of a man than just their kid, and I felt like that was something that will always stick with me.”

A GoFundMe page created to support the children has raised more than $270,000 as of Friday, Aug. 22.