West Plains, MO. – On May 5th, 2022, at 5:43 a.m. officers with the West Plains Police Department were dispatched for a hit and run traffic crash. The caller advised a bicyclist had been struck by a red car on U.S. Highway 63 near Elmore Drive, in West Plains, Missouri.
The officers that arrived in the area found a nineteen-year-old male bicyclist laying in the grass near the shoulder of the roadway. They also found the bicycle which had been dragged by the suspect vehicle approximately 100 feet away.
Jason Thomas Vanatter a 52-year-old male has been taken into custody on this case. A probable cause statement was submitted to the Howell County Prosecutors Office for Assault 2nd degree and felony leaving the scene of an accident. Vanatter was issued a bond of $25,000 for those charges. Vanatter is assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The nineteen-year-old used the bicycle that was destroyed as a method of transportation to and from work. Because it was destroyed, the employees of the West Plains Police Department partnered with Walmart to buy him a brand new one. The employees at the police department pitch in various amounts of money from their own pockets to buy the bike along with some added safety equipment.
On May 11th, 2022, WPPD proudly presented the new bicycle and equipment to the nineteen-year-old in the West Plains Police Department lobby (see the photo above).
Life is hard enough on its own to deal with. You can face many trials throughout it and see many beautiful things going through it. But as a community working together, we can make the tough times a little easier to deal with.
