Nashville dad Jacob Barnhardt killed by speeding drag racer: cops

A Nashville father on his way to his daughter’s softball game was killed Monday when a drag racer speeding at 100 mph lost control of his car, police said.

Jacob Barnhardt, 34, died shortly after he was extricated from his sedan and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Kate Kastle, Barnhardt’s girlfriend, told WEAU, he was driving to pick up her two boys before heading to his daughter’s softball game after work at the time of the crash.

“They just ripped him away from us,” Kastle said. “He was leaving the job that he loved to go pick up the children that he loved.”

“He didn’t miss anything that had to do with the kids, ever. When I got the call from his daughter’s mom that he wasn’t at the game, and when my boy’s dad called asking if everything was OK because he didn’t pick up the boys, I just knew something happened.”

Cops said two Dodge Challengers were drag racing along southbound Clarksville Pike when one of the drivers lost control, swerved into the northbound lane and slammed into Barnhardt.

A driver in a Toyota pick-up was also struck in the three-car collision but wasn’t injured.

One of the drag racers fled the scene, while 31-year-old Patrick Ewin — who cops said was the driver who struck Barnhardt — sustained minor injuries, but was jailed on a charge of vehicular homicide by recklessness for Barnhardt’s death.

Barnhardt was a retired Army special forces combat medic who served 18 years based at Fort Campbell, Kastle said, describing him as a devoted family man who would do anything for his children.

Nashville police are still looking for the driver of the second Dodge Charger.