Mother of Barnsdall teenager killed in road accident speaks out after driver’s arrest

A Barnsdall mother wants justice for her 15-year-old son who died in a car crash and is relieved that the driver is now facing manslaughter charges.

Investigators believe that Weston Lowe was drunk and driving with his 16-year-old daughter, her 15-year-old friend Tyson Townley and another passenger when he crashed.

Lowe’s daughter and the other passenger were injured and Townley was killed.

Townley’s mother says he was an amazing boy who loved his family, loved to make people laugh and loved baseball.

She says she will do everything she can to keep his memory alive.

Townley was celebrating his girlfriend’s 16th birthday with family and friends in Barnsdall in May when her father, Lowe, was driving drunk and caused an accident, according to investigators.

Townley’s mother says the last few weeks have been nothing short of a nightmare.

“I can’t even describe what it did to us and how it feels,” said Stacey Harris. “We’re still trying to process it honestly. The fact that a tornado hit the city right after that was really bad.”

Prosecutors charged Lowe with manslaughter, child endangerment and hit-and-run after police said they found him hiding nearly a mile from the scene of the accident.

Harris says she is glad they are one step closer to justice.

“I’m very thankful he doesn’t have to sit out two whole years before it starts,” Harris said. “I’m very thankful it’s starting now. But it doesn’t change what he took from us. It doesn’t bring Tyson back and it never will. We got a life sentence for something we didn’t want to get.”

She says it’s frustrating that another parent would put her child in danger like this.

“I don’t just let other people have my kids,” Harris said. “I’m very picky about that. I guess I’m a protector. I have to trust them to take care of him as much as we do, and that he’s doing that because he made the decision to get behind the wheel.”

She hopes other people will talk to their children about not getting into a car with a drunk person – even an adult – and the importance of finding another way home.

“Don’t drive under the influence,” Harris said. “There’s no reason, no excuse, you can’t even say why you did it. And it changes so many people’s lives.”

Harris plans to attend every court hearing.

News On 6 contacted Lowe’s family, who did not want to speak on camera, but his daughter sent us a statement last week saying her father was a good father who made a mistake and did not flee the scene but went to look for her boyfriend.

News On 6 has not received a response from Lowe’s attorney.