Hit-and-run crashes in California

Someone hit you and drove off. The unwelcome part first: whether you recover usually depends on decisions made in the next few hours, not on anything that happens months later. Cameras overwrite, witnesses leave, and paint transfer gets washed off in a repair. This is general information, not legal advice.

What the law required of them

A driver involved in a crash that results in injury or death must immediately stop at the scene and fulfil the duties the Vehicle Code sets out: give their name and address, give the registration of the vehicle, show a driver's licence on request, and render reasonable assistance to anyone injured — including arranging transport for treatment where it is apparently necessary or is requested.

Leaving is a crime. Where the crash caused death or permanent, serious injury it can be charged as a felony, with a further consecutive enhancement for fleeing after vehicular manslaughter.

None of that pays for your treatment. The criminal case and the civil claim run separately, and a conviction is useful evidence rather than a recovery. What the criminal duty does is establish, plainly, that the person who left was in the wrong for leaving — independently of who caused the crash.

Sources: Veh. Code, § 20001 (duty to stop and to comply with §§ 20003 and 20004 after an injury or fatal collision; penalties, including the enhancement for fleeing).

The first hours

1. Get safe, then get help. Injuries first. Everything below is worth nothing next to that.
2. Write down what you saw while you still have it. Colour, body style, any part of a plate, damage on their vehicle, direction of travel, anything about the driver. Partial plates are more useful than people assume — three characters plus a make and colour narrows a registration search sharply.
3. Look for cameras before you leave. Businesses, homes with doorbell cameras, buses, parking structures, traffic cameras. Note which buildings face the spot. Most systems keep footage for days, not weeks.
4. Get witness names. People who stop to help will leave within minutes and are usually not in the report.
5. Call the police and get a report number. Both the criminal investigation and your uninsured motorist claim will lean on it.
6. Photograph everything, including transferred paint. Paint transfer on your vehicle can identify a make and colour and can match a suspect vehicle later. A repair destroys it.
7. Notify your own insurer promptly, even before you know whether you will make a claim.

How fleeing drivers actually get identified

• Partial plate plus vehicle description run against registration records.
• Debris at the scene — a mirror housing, trim, or headlamp fragment often carries a part number that identifies a make, model, and year range.
• Paint transfer matched to a vehicle recovered later.
• Body shops, which see damage consistent with a reported crash.
• Camera footage from the surrounding blocks, not just the impact point.
• A vehicle abandoned nearby, which is common when the damage is disabling.

Identification can happen weeks later. That is a reason to preserve your own evidence rather than to wait before starting a claim.

When they are never found

Uninsured motorist coverage is the route. In California an insurer must include uninsured motorist coverage in a bodily injury liability policy unless the insured deletes it by written agreement, and a hit-and-run driver is treated as an uninsured motorist. Disputes over entitlement and amount are decided by agreement, or failing that by arbitration before a neutral arbitrator, rather than in a lawsuit against your insurer.

Two practical cautions. This is a claim against your own insurer, which means the adjuster handling it is not on your side of the table in the way people expect. And these policies carry prompt-notice and proof conditions that are enforced.

Sources: Ins. Code, § 11580.2 (uninsured motorist coverage — required inclusion, deletion by written agreement, and arbitration of disputes).

The coverage in full: uninsured motorist claims · why coverage limits decide cases.

If you were on foot

A pedestrian struck by a driver who leaves has the same problem with a different set of answers — including whether uninsured motorist coverage reaches you when no car of yours was involved. That is covered at hit-and-run pedestrian claims.

Common questions

What is a driver required to do after a crash with injuries?

Stop immediately at the scene and stay there, give their name, address, and vehicle registration, show a driver’s licence on request, and render reasonable assistance to anyone injured — including arranging transport if it is needed or requested (Veh. Code, § 20001 and the sections it refers to). Leaving is a crime, and a serious one where there is injury or death.

Can I still recover if the driver is never identified?

Often, through uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy. In California, uninsured motorist coverage has to be offered with a bodily injury liability policy and is included unless you declined it in writing. A hit-and-run driver is treated as uninsured for this purpose, but the coverage has notice requirements and its own proof conditions.

Does my rate go up if I use my own uninsured motorist coverage?

It is a first-party claim on a coverage you paid for, in a crash someone else caused. That is what the coverage exists for. Insurers make their own rating decisions, and it is a fair question to ask your agent directly, but the alternative is usually no recovery at all.

How quickly do I need to report it?

Immediately, in practical terms. Police reporting supports both the criminal investigation and the uninsured motorist claim, camera footage is usually overwritten within days, and the policy itself will have prompt notice conditions. Waiting is the most common way these claims are lost.