Also known as a “hit and run,” leaving an accident scene is a crime. You can be charged with fleeing if you hit another vehicle, a pedestrian, an object, or property and then drive away. The problems from this go beyond just court fines. Most states will suspend your driver’s license. Insurance will usually cancel your policy after a hit-and-run conviction. And a criminal record from it can follow you around for years.
Only the driver of the vehicle can be charged with leaving the accident. But in some states, if you’re a passenger in a vehicle that’s in an accident and the driver leaves, you can get in hot water if you don’t report the accident within the time limit. Like in Virginia, a passenger has 24 hours to report the accident or they can be charged with a crime. Virginia’s way of doing it shows how more states are starting to hold passengers responsible too. Other states need proof that the passenger actively tried to hide the accident before they’ll charge them. The time you have to report changes depending on which state you’re in.
There are some situations where it’s okay to leave the accident. Your personal safety comes first in these cases. You might need to leave right away if staying would be dangerous. You might also need to leave so you can get help or call emergency services. Courts look at these emergency situations pretty closely. You still have to report the accident once you get to a safe place. If you have proof of why you had to leave, it’ll help defend you if you end up getting charged.
If you’re just a bystander or witness to the accident, the law doesn’t make you stay there. That’s true even if you saw the whole accident happen. While you can stay to call for help or give first aid, you’re also free to leave if you want.
What is the Difference Between a Misdemeanor and Felony Hit and Run?
When you flee the scene of an accident, it can be either a felony or a misdemeanor charge. In many cases, a hit and run turns into a felony when someone gets injured. That person could be a pedestrian or someone riding in the other vehicle. The state where the hit and run happened also matters. Some states will charge it as a felony if damage costs more than $1,000 worth of property damage. Each state sets its own dollar amount, so it depends on where you are.
Felony charges will change your life in ways most people never think about. The courts take these cases very seriously because someone got hurt when you were supposed to be responsible. Your professional license, your ability to rent an apartment, and your ability to find a job all get put in danger when felony charges show up on your record.
A hit and run is a misdemeanor when there’s only minor property damage. These accidents happen all of the time in parking lots. Even small accidents count if you don’t leave your contact information. Let’s say you hit a car in a parking lot and cause some damage. If you drive away without leaving your information for the other driver, you can still be charged with a misdemeanor.
If a driver was breaking another law at the time of the accident, they can get charged for multiple crimes. Say a driver was drunk and then left the accident, they’ll get charged with DUI and hit and run. Each of these charges come with their own separate penalties.
When you have multiple charges against you, prosecutors have more to work with as they build their case. Each crime has its own fines, jail time, and license suspension. Your defense attorney has to work much harder when they’re dealing with multiple criminal charges instead of just one.
A driver who was drunk or speeding when they flee the scene might also get hit with extra charges. These could include reckless driving or vehicular homicide if the person they hit dies. Vehicular homicide can put you in prison for decades. Speeding or drunk driving can lead to worse punishments because the judge can use them as aggravating factors to give you a longer sentence.
The Consequences for a Hit and Run
What happens to you after a hit and run depends on whether the police charge you with a felony or a misdemeanor. The exact consequences change from state to state. Your state’s laws control what happens in your case. In most states, if you get charged with misdemeanor hit and run, you’ll have to pay a fine. But you might also spend up to one year in jail.
It gets much worse with a felony hit and run charge. You’ll probably have to pay a big fine and spend time in jail. If someone dies in a hit and run accident, you could spend as much as ten years in jail in some states. When you get charged with a felony, what started as a traffic accident turns into a criminal record that stays with you for the rest of your life. The courts take these cases more seriously when someone gets hurt. Finding a job gets much harder when background checks show you have a felony on your record.
If you leave an accident scene, most states will charge you with either a misdemeanor or a felony and you’ll also lose your driver’s license for a while. You might lose it for a few months or even a few years. It depends on the laws in the state where the accident happened. You’ll lose your driver’s license regardless of what other fines you have to pay or how much jail time you get.
On top of these legal problems, your insurance company will probably raise your car insurance rates if the court finds you guilty of leaving an accident scene. Losing your license also makes it harder to find or keep any job that requires driving. Insurance providers see hit and run convictions as a red flag. Your monthly payments usually double for a few years after a conviction like this.
Plenty of employers need a valid driver’s license if the job includes driving a company car or visiting clients. Those higher insurance payments also end up taking a bigger chunk out of your budget month after month.
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Can You Be Sued for a Hit and Run?
Any time you get into a vehicle accident, there’s a strong chance that the other driver or property owner might sue you for damages. Most drivers don’t think much about this happening to them. If you choose to leave the accident, the money you have to pay could end up being much more.
The person you hit may ask you to pay for their medical bills, damage to their property, and the wages they lost from missing work. If you left the accident, they’re much more likely to receive what’s called punitive damages too. These are extra damages that the court makes you pay just to punish you. Even if the damage you caused to the person or their property was just an accident, you still chose to leave on purpose. The court will want to punish you for that choice.
When you leave an accident, you turn what could have been a straightforward insurance claim into a big legal mess. Courts see it as intentionally doing something wrong, and it doesn’t matter who actually caused the crash in the first place. The fact that you drove away ends up being the main issue that judges and juries will pay attention to when they look at your case.
Punitive damages can force you to pay multiple times more than the actual damage you caused. A small accident that could have cost a few hundred dollars to fix could end up costing you thousands of extra dollars once the court adds these punitive awards.
It doesn’t really matter if you left right away or if you stuck around for a few minutes before you drove off. Courts will treat you the same way because you didn’t fulfill your legal obligations.
Do I Need a Lawyer If I Committed a Hit and Run?
If you’ve been charged with hit and run, you need to talk to a criminal defense attorney about what you can do and how to defend yourself. Time really matters in these types of cases. The consequences of a hit and run charge can be severe and stay with you for a long time. An attorney who handles these cases can help explain what could happen to you for leaving the place where the accident happened and can represent you in court. There are ways to defend yourself even when the evidence looks bad. LegalMatch can connect you with the right criminal defense lawyer for your individual needs.
Hit and run charges can mean jail time that could last anywhere from a few months to a few years. A conviction like this will stay on your driving record for decades. When employers run background checks, they usually won’t hire people who have criminal records. Your insurance company might drop your coverage or refuse to renew your policy.
The prosecutor will have to prove that you knew an accident happened. They also need evidence that proves you were the one driving the car at that exact time. When the court questions witnesses, their stories don’t always hold up. Sometimes the physical evidence doesn’t connect you to what happened.
Your attorney will look at all of the facts of the charges against you. Police reports sometimes have mistakes in them that experienced lawyers know how to find. When you take a second look at surveillance videos, they might show details that people missed the first time. If there are medical records, they might show that someone already had health problems before the accident, which could affect the injury claims.
The legal system starts moving fast after charges get filed against you. Your court dates are usually set within just a few weeks after you’re arrested. If you miss big deadlines, you lose some of your defenses forever.
