No More Action in Bagwill Case Until Civil Suit is Decided

A traffic charge of failure to report an accident has been set aside in Fayette County Circuit Court while a civil suit from the accident is decided.

A semi driven by 33-year-old Kevin Bagwill of Godfrey struck a bicycle along Route 40, one mile east of St. Elmo, on March 28, 2016. The bicycle rider, 30-year-old Jason Hearty of Altamont, was fatally injured in the incident. Bagwill didn't stop at the scene and was located later that day in the Metro East area. 

Bagwill was originally charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury or death and with failure to report an accident. Fayette County State's Attorney Joshua Morrison later dropped the leaving the scene charge. Morrison said the crash occurred just before 6am and in late March, it is still dark at that hour. In dismissing the leaving the scene charge, Morrison said he believed there was no more fault than failure to report the crash.

The case was in court August 10 and the decision was to dismiss the failure to report charge without prejudice until after the civil suit filed by Hearty's family is settled. Dismissing the charge without prejudice allows it to be re-filed at a later date.