Family wants driver to turn themselves in for fatal hit-and-run

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    HICKMAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WSMV) — The family of the victim of a deadly hit-and-run crash on Highway 48 is remembering him and asking the driver of that to come forward to authorities.

Dustin Tidwell would give you the shirt off his back, according to his family and friends.

“He just loved people,” his sister Tiffany Tanner said.

Now that Dustin is gone, stories have surfaced about him, both from his visitation and funeral.

Tanner said one they’ve learned about is when Dustin saw a husband and wife standing in their front yard with their house on fire.

“Everything they had was burning to the ground. Their house, their everything, their clothes,” Tanner said. “He stopped, and he literally took the shirt off his back and gave it to her husband, and that’s just who he was.”

Even as rowdy and energetic as Dustin is described as his mother, Gina Waynick, also remembers how giving and selfless he was.

“He’d come home from school one time with no shoes on, and I’m like hold on, where’s your shoes? This boy needed them worse than I did,” she said.

That’s why it wasn’t a surprise for them to learn that following the motorcycle crash on Highway 48 in Hickman County, Dustin was once again selfless, asking the paramedics to treat his girlfriend first.

“Of course he’s in bad shape. He said ‘no, no, no, you get over there and take care of Jillian first.’ And when you get finished taking care of her, you come back and check on me,” Waynick said.

The family says they’re “very proud of him” and know the sacrifice shows who he was, but they can’t help upset that the driver who crossed the lane and hit him didn’t show the same type of concern.

“They jumped out of their car and ran instead of helping. I mean, if they would have maybe helped, my son would be here today because he bled to death,” Waynick said.

That’s why Waynick and Tanner are pleading for them to come forward now and take responsibility for the accident.

“I hope he finds out who Dustin was,” Tanner said. “That he was amazing and he deserved to live,” added Waynick.

The visitation and funeral for Dustin Tidwell took place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The family said it was overwhelming how many people showed up to express how much Dustin meant to them and how many reached out to the funeral home to donate.

“Oh, they made some racket on the way to the graveyard. He went out with a bang,” joked Waynick even though she said it was the hardest thing she’s ever done in her entire life.

“He just told me a week ago, Mom, I’m still young,” Waynick continued. “I got plenty of life to live, so he wasn’t ready to lose his life.”

“He was excited to get on with the rest of it,” Tanner added.

Tennessee Highway Patrol says no one has been arrested at this time, and the crash is still under investigation.

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