Bill Named for Late-Nolensville Teen Aims to Strengthen Penalties for Deadly Hit-and-Run Crashes

A bill that would increase the penalty for leaving the scene of a deadly crash — and is named in honor of a late-Nolensville teen — is a piece of legislation lawmakers will soon debate.

HB1521/SB1736 or the “James Bardsley Life Protection Act,” would increase the criminal penalty for leaving the scene of a crash “that the person knew or should reasonably have known resulted in death” from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Stevens (R-Smyrna) and Sen. Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro), is named in memory of James Bardsley, 19, known to his family and friends as Jimmy. He died in a September 2021 traffic crash while riding his Yamaha motorcycle on Rocky Fork Almaville Road and Morton Lane in Smyrna. A wooden cross erected feet from the road stands in his memory. 

Driver Ruben Buenrostro Contreras fled the scene of the three-vehicle crash in his damaged pickup truck. He was later arrested and charged with hit-and-run of a person and leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury.

“The next morning, to find out it was a hit-and-run, it was devastating,” Bardsley’s mother, Kim Webb, told the Williamson Scene on Wednesday outside of the Cordell Hull State Office Building. 

Bardsley was a “Covid graduate” of the 2020 class at Nolensville High School, where his celebration of life was later held. 

“He was so clever and so funny and so wild,” Webb said of her son as she scrolled through photos of him on her phone. “He was a mama's boy, but he was that wild streak mama’s boy. He was my twin flame.” 

Colorful tattoos of flowers surrounding the words “take the risk or lose the chance” adorn her left wrist and forearm. It is the same as Bardsley, just above, “I love you! - Jimmy” in handwritten letters.

In 2023, a jury convicted Contreras of the charges and of tampering with evidence. According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections website, Contreras was sentenced to five years in prison, but has since been remanded to supervised parole after less than a year of prison time. Webb argued that the sentence is not justice served. 

Now she’s channeling her grief into action on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to support the bill, and launching a website and petition that’s gathered more than 2,000 signatures.

“It's inhumane for anyone to have the lack of conscience to leave someone in the road. There needs to be a deterrent. All I'm fighting for right now is a floor. There's got to be a minimum [sentence,]” Webb said.

The bill wasn’t heard during Wednesday’s House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, and was rescheduled to March 11, when Webb plans to tell her story directly to the subcommittee.  

“For the first time in four and a half years, I actually feel strong today,” Webb said. 

Stevens told the Williamson Scene that he is “honored to carry the bill,” which he expects to pass the subcommittee when it’s heard, saying he’s secured the necessary votes to move the bill along.

Webb said she knows Bardsley would be proud of her and her pursuit of justice.

“I think he would very much be trying to reassure me and comfort me that it's OK that we didn't get justice in his case — that he's OK. But we're doing the right thing for other families that may benefit.”