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If you leave the scene of an accident, you could find yourself in hot water—or jail! NY law requires everybody involved in a car accident to remain at the scene until law enforcement dismisses them. But there are more ways to get this charge than just driving away.
The two laws that cover leaving the scene of an accident in NY are sections 600 and 601 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law (VAT or VTL). These laws state that not only do you have to stay at the scene, you also have to provide your information to the other people involved in the accident.
There can be serious consequences for anybody caught in violation leaving the scene of an accident in NY. Those consequences would be even worse if somebody were to suffer injuries or be killed as a result of the accident.
What Are the Penalties for Leaving the Scene of an Accident in NY?
NY state law doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to penalizing drivers for this violation. At the least, you’ll be paying out-of-pocket fines and risking a brief stay in jail. At the most, you’ll be going away for a long, long time.
How severe the penalties are depends on how severe the other person’s injuries are. If nobody were injured, you’d be facing a simple traffic infraction. If somebody were injured, it goes up to a misdemeanor. And so on.
Fines
The fine for leaving the scene of an accident depends on the circumstances of the scene. The following table shows which kind of violation could lead to which fine amount:
| Circumstances | Fine Amount |
| Failing to provide necessary information with property damage (Traffic Infraction). | Up to $250. |
| Failing to provide necessary information with personal injury (Class B Misdemeanor). | Between $250 and $500. |
| Leaving the scene with property damage (Traffic Infraction). | Up to $250. |
| Leaving the scene with personal injury (Class A Misdemeanor). | Between $500 and $1,000. |
| Leaving the scene with serious personal injury (Class E Felony). | Between $1,000 and $5,000 |
| Leaving the scene with somebody’s death (Class D Felony). | Between $2,000 and $5,000. |
| Leaving the scene with harm to an animal (Traffic Infraction). | Up to $150. |
Committing another hit and run violation could lead to fines of several thousand dollars. The issuing officer will know to write the ticket for only the most severe violation from the above list.
It’s important to keep in mind that fines are not the only cost that you’ll have to pay. You might also have to pay surcharges, fees, and civil penalties.
Surcharges
Surcharges are usually small fees that you have to pay after the court convicts you. Depending on where the violation took place, that could be either $88 or $93 for traffic tickets. For criminal convictions, you may have to pay additional surcharges according to the NY State Penal Code.
Higher Insurance Premiums
According to the Zebra’s 2019 State of Auto Insurance Report, a single hit and run violation can send your insurance premiums soaring. The average insurance increase after a conviction for leaving the scene of an accident is 82.2%.
The average insurance premium in NY is $1,688 each year. After a conviction for hit and run, that price can go up to $3,076—nearly double the original cost.
License Suspension
A driver license suspension is when the court says your license will be invalid for a period of time. These typically last only two to three months. Driver license revocations, however, are much worse.
When your license is suspended, you get to keep it and wait for the suspension period to end. When your license is revoked, it’s gone forever. You’ll have to get a new one altogether.
A conviction for leaving the scene of an accident can get your license revoked for up to a year. That means no license for twelve months. You’ll be able to apply for a new license, with steep bureaucratic hills to climb—once you get out of jail.
Jail Time
According to section 602 of the VAT, you can be arrested for any kind of hit and run violation. That includes failing to provide the necessary information to either the police officers on the scene or the other person/people.
Jail time for hit and run convictions varies depending on the severity of the violation. The maximum jail time is 15 days for infractions and up to five years for felonies.
Criminal Record
With jail time comes a criminal record. Having a criminal record can make it difficult to do much of anything in life. You will most likely not be able to get a job that involves driving a motor vehicle of any kind.
What Is the Difference Between Hit and Run and Leaving the Scene of an Accident?
There is a difference between hit and run and leaving the scene of an accident in NY, but both of these violations are somewhat the same. In fact, they come from the same section of the law: 600 and 601 VAT.
Whether you speed away after running somebody off the road or you just forget to provide information after a fender-bender, you could be committing one of these violations.
Hit and run refers to the actual fact of hitting another vehicle and driving away. Leaving the scene of an accident could mean the same thing or could simply mean that you failed to provide the necessary information after the accident.
Is It Hit and Run if you Come Back?
Returning to the scene of the crime is not a valid legal defense. In fact, it could ruin your chances of securing one of the more common legal defenses for hit and run cases. It shows that you caused an accident but chose to leave anyway.
However, it also shows that you decided to come back and do the right thing. Doing the right thing can go a long way in reducing your sentence. That’s because it shows the judge and jury that you wanted to make things right after your mistake.
Can You Leave the Scene if You Hit a Parked Car and There Is No Damage?
If you hit a parked car with or without damage, you should always leave your information at the scene. In fact, spend a few minutes looking around for the owner. If you cannot find them, leave your information somewhere on the vehicle where it will be easily seen. As the saying goes, “better safe than sorry.”
Since there could be damage that you cannot see from the outside of the vehicle, the safe choice is to provide your information just in case. That just might save you later on.
What to Do if You Flee the Scene of an Accident
The first thing you should do after fleeing the scene of an accident is to call 911 for the person you hit. If that person dies from injuries you caused, you might also be charged with negligent homicide.
The next thing you should do is call a lawyer. The sooner your lawyer hears about the case, the sooner they can start preparing a defense. Getting the right lawyer as soon as possible can help make the difference between a conviction and a dismissal.
Common Defenses for Leaving the Scene of an Accident in NY
Leaving the scene of an accident is a serious crime. You could face thousands of dollars in fines, years in prison, and more. Fortunately, there are a few solid defenses that can help you get off scot free.
Three of the most common defenses are mistakes of fact, fear for your life, and coercion. If any of these three arguments sound right to you, you should take the time to explain in detail your situation to your lawyer.
Claim that You Didn’t Know You Hit Someone (Mistake of Fact)
If you didn’t know that you were in a car accident, you won’t be in violation of VAT section 600 or 601. That’s because the law requires that anybody charged with leaving the scene must have done so intentionally. The exact phrase is “knowing or having cause to know.”
If the accident is so minor as to not cause an impact, for example, it could be possible that you didn’t even know the accident took place. Since you didn’t know and didn’t have cause to know, you can’t be convicted for leaving the scene of an accident.
Claim that You Were Scared to Stay
A common phrase in court is, “I feared for my life.” The reason this works is that most people consider it reasonable to try to survive trauma. If you are afraid for your life, the law allows you to leave the scene of the accident.
To best support this argument, you should call 911 immediately after leaving the scene and explain the situation. Tell them that you were afraid to stop at the scene. They may ask you to find a safe location at which to meet. If so, do your best to comply in order to secure this defense.
Claim that the Officer Coerced Your Statement
Sometimes, you find a bad apple in the orchard. If a police officer uses force or the threat of force to intimidate you into filling out a statement, you may be able to beat the charges against you.
This is where the phrase “under duress” comes in. In many cases, crimes committed under duress do not result in convictions. As long as you and your attorney can prove that any other reasonable person would have falsified a statement like yours, you might win your case.
Data on Hit and Run Tickets in NY
Each year, the state of NY issues nearly four million traffic tickets. That’s roughly enough for one out every five people in the state to get a ticket. The most common violations are speeding, failing to obey a traffic device, and driving without a valid license. Farther down the list is hit and run.
Hit and run violations are certainly not common violations. Only around 12 thousand traffic tickets are issued for leaving the scene of an accident each year, according to government data. Violations involving animals are even less common, with only 69 tickets being written in 2017.
But just because a violation isn’t common doesn’t mean it can’t cause common problems.
Common Insurance Issues with Hit and Run
One of the worst penalties of a hit and run conviction is the potential for insurance increases. All it takes is one conviction to nearly double your insurance premiums. If you’re found guilty of hit and run involving death or serious injury, you might lose your insurance altogether.
Here are two frequently asked questions with answers that you might find helpful:
If Your Car Were Hit and the Offender Fled, Will that Cause a Big Insurance Increase?
If you are convicted of leaving the scene of an accident, you are looking at an average rate increase of 82.2%. However, if you stay and they leave, your insurance might not increase at all. That is, if you’re not at fault in the accident.
According to the Zebra report mentioned earlier in this article, a not-at-fault accident tends to raise insurance premiums by around 6.7%. If you are neither at fault nor convicted of leaving the scene, your insurance will likely only increase by a little bit if at all.
Is There a Statute of Limitations for Recouping Funds from Someone Who Hit Your Car and Fled?
There are three kinds of car accidents: property damage, personal injury, and wrongful death. Each of those three kinds has a different statute of limitations regarding lawsuits.
The statute of limitations for a car accident involving property damage is two years. The same goes for wrongful death cases. But that jumps up to four years if you or somebody in your vehicle sustained any injuries.
