ALIAMANU — A 5-year-old boy was seriously injured yesterday morning when a tire came off a boat trailer, rolled 100 feet down an incline and hit him in the face.

The boy lost several teeth and suffered head, neck, and facial injuries, according to police and a school official. The tire also hit the boy's mother, but she was not seriously injured.

Navy Hale Keiki School director Chris Town rushed to the corner where the boy and his mother fell shortly after the accident. He said the boy was going "in and out of consciousness" as his mother cradled him.

The driver of the truck towing the boat trailer, a 46-year-old man from 'Ewa Beach, was unaware the tire came off his trailer, police said. The man was later found at Ke'ehi Boat Harbor, police said.

He was not arrested.

The boy was walking along Bougainville Drive with his mother and younger brother toward Navy Hale Keiki School when the accident occurred, said Ramona Sergent, the school's assistant director. It happened at 7:20 a.m., just as the boy and his mother were turning to walk into the school's parking lot.

City paramedics took the boy to The Queen's Medical Center where he was first listed in critical condition, but later upgraded to serious.

The school is adjacent to Radford High School and provides services in nursery school through second grade to children whose parents are in all branches of the military, as well as children from civilian families.

Sergent said the boy's family is in the military.

"It is a very supportive community (here at the school) and it's 95 percent military and the military is used to taking care of their own," Town said.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com and David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.