Mother Of Crash Victim Reacts After 17-Year-Old Driver Charged With Manslaughter

Tulsa County prosecutors charged a 17-year-old girl with manslaughter for a deadly crash that killed passenger, 18-year-old Hannah Weis.

She's accused of being high and drunk when she ran off the road and crashed in June.

The affidavit said 17-year-old Harley Wilson told troopers she had not had any alcohol for about four days before the crash. However, her other passenger said all three had been drinking the night before and the morning of the crash.

Captain Erik Smoot with the Oklahoma ABLE Commission said what happened is sad, but not uncommon.

"Getting a ticket, going to jail for impaired driving might just save your life," said Capt. Smoot. "I will do anything at this point to try to reduce the number of youths that are dying in alcohol related incidents."

The affidavit said Wilson was speeding and had twice the legal limit for alcohol in her system, as well as cocaine.

She flipped her Mitsubishi, killing her friend Hannah Weis and breaking the leg of the other passenger, a 17-year-old boy.

The one vehicle, roll-over crash happened June 12 around 10 a.m. near 33rd West Avenue, near the Creek Turnpike in Jenks.

Prosecutors charged Wilson with first degree manslaughter for Weis' death and driving under the influence, causing great bodily harm for the boy who was injured in the crash.

In a statement, Hannah's mother Kristin Weis said, "Losing Hannah has been the darkest time for our family. We have sacrificed normalcy to fight for kids that have been sexually exploited and to bring child predators to Justice…why couldn’t we protect our Hannah? She walked the stage of graduation, with her whole life ahead of her and a couple of weeks later, she steps into eternity. God is our strength! We will continue to fight for children. Harley made a tragic decision she will live with the rest of her life. Hannah was her friend. There will be natural and logical consequences for Harley and the other kids involved however, we believe walking with Harley through this, is what Hannah wants us to do. We might never know why Hannah got into that car sober minded after all we have taught her, so all we can say is, keep teaching your kids how fragile life is and how every decision matters!”

Captain Smoot said young people worry more about getting in trouble when it comes to drinking and driving.

"Some youth will say, 'Oh I won't drink,' but they don't have any problem getting in the vehicle with somebody who is intoxicated and riding because they think, 'Oh, if we get stopped, they're gonna be the one who gets in trouble.' Getting in trouble is not what you need to worry about. Dying in that crash or killing someone else is what you need to worry about. That's what the fear needs to be. Right?" said Smoot.

Wilson told police she took a wrong turn and ended up on unfamiliar backroads to a friend's house when there was a sharp turn and her vehicle flipped.

Smoot said he'll continue to educate about the harms of drunk driving.

"We've done several things with education, with talking to youth and doing different things. None of that seems to have made an impact yet, so I'm not exactly sure what that is, but the numbers are there. It's on the news every day. I'm kind of worried that people have gotten desensitized to this because it happens so often," said Smoot. "When we talk to people and their families after this happens, it's miserable, you know and a lot of these schools that we have in our area have seen multiple deaths over several years where they've lost students to alcohol related crashes and this type of thing."

Smoot said Oklahoma is making strides this year.

"It looks like we're gonna have some new stuff this year that allows us to possibly test oral fluid on the side of the road, which will allow us more to test, cause right now it's pretty easy to test for alcohol. Much harder to test for drugs when someone gets pulled over. So that will help us to do that. That will help us to detect more often. There's also gonna be some more stuff with blood to test, so we'll have better results. Better data on how many people are actually under the influence of alcohol and other substances at the same time," said Smoot.

Smoot said if you're underage, you shouldn't be using alcohol at all and definitely shouldn't be using drugs and driving.

"[I]f you're under 21 and you've had any alcohol at all, which means one beer, right, any traceable amount of alcohol in your system, you can be charged with DUI. So, a lot of people say, a lot of youth when I talk to them say, 'Oh, I don't drive drunk,' but if they've had a couple, they think that's fine. In Oklahoma, there's still an intoxicated driver on the roadway," said Smoot.

Smoot said the Oklahoma ABLE Commission also does a lot to prevent businesses from selling to minors and said parents need to talk to their kids.

"We talk about the Oklahoma social host law which basically says if you provide a place where minors are able to consume alcohol or drugs, it's a crime. That law doesn't say you had to give alcohol or drugs to a minor. It just says if you provided the place where they were able to use it, it's a crime," said Smoot.