What to Do After a Hit-and-Run in California

California has laws surrounding hit-and-runs. Make sure you follow them to avoid fines, imprisonment, or both.

Stop at the Scene of the Accident

Even if your accident involved property damage only, you must stop as close to the accident as possible without impeding traffic or risking your safety. Then, you must locate and notify the person in charge of the property you hit, exchanging your contact information (name and address), license number, and registration information. If you can’t locate the owner or driver, you must leave a written note in a conspicuous place, explaining what happened and including your name and address. Additionally, provide “reasonable assistance” to any injured parties.

Report the Accident

You’re required to report an accident “without unnecessary delay” that results in any of the following:

• Property damage worth over $1,000
• Bodily injury
• Death

If the accident occurred in an incorporated area, contact the local police. However, if the accident occurred in unincorporated territory, contact the nearest local headquarters of the Department of the California Highway Patrol.

Violating these requirements will be a misdemeanor, more serious than an infraction.

Gather Evidence

Now that you’ve fulfilled your legal responsibilities, gather as much evidence as you can for when you’re filing a claim, including the police report. If you didn’t see the license plate, speak to witnesses and get their information so they can add to your claim. Take pictures of the damages, if any, and write down the time and location of the accident, along with the weather conditions. The more information you have for your claim, the likelier compensation is.

Did someone hit your parked car and flee the scene? Or were you in the car when the hit-and-run occurred, and you had enough time to scribble down the license plate number? Whether or not you know the identity of the person who hit your car will determine how you can recover damages.

If you know the identity of the at-fault driver, you can get compensated through their liability coverage, which is required in California (assuming they have insurance). However, if you don’t know the identity of the driver, or if they’re part of the 17 percent of people in California who drive without insurance,¹ you can file a claim with your own insurance, including:

• Uninsured motorist coverage: Property damage and bodily injuries
• Collision coverage: Property damage only
• Medical payments coverage: Bodily injuries only

If you’ve filed a first- or third-party claim and you still have uncompensated losses, given you know the hit-and-run driver, you can sue them, regardless of your own percentage of negligence in the hit-and-run. Because the state has pure comparative negligence laws, you’ll be able to recover money, but it’ll be reduced by your percentage of fault, like if you were parked illegally.

You can sue for personal injury, property damage, or wrongful death in a civil suit for both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are monetary losses, objective and verifiable, which include:

• Burial costs
• Costs of obtaining substitute domestic services
• Costs of repair or replacement
• Loss of earnings
• Loss of employment, business, or employment opportunities
• Loss of use of property
• Medical expenses

Non-economic losses are subjective and non-monetary, such as:

• Pain
• Suffering
• Inconvenience
• Mental suffering
• Emotional distress
• Loss of society, companionship, and consortium
• Injury to reputation
• Humiliation

If you’re involved in an accident in California, you’ll need to carry an SR-22 form, which proves that you have the minimum car insurance that California requires. Having to file an SR-22 with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles makes you a high-risk driver, so expect your car insurance premium to increase by 93 percent, on average, or anywhere between 6 and 155 percent.

We analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System to see just how common hit-and-runs are in the state of California. From 2011 to 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, hit-and-runs made up 10 percent of all of the state’s fatal crashes.

Of the fatal hit-and-runs, 41 percent involved drivers with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher, meaning they were driving under the influence, and 30 percent were speeding.

The plurality, or a quarter, of the drivers involved in fatal hit-and-runs were between the ages of 35 and 44.

Finally, of the drivers whose sex was known, 75 percent were male. Despite this, California forbids car insurance companies to charge men more for car insurance on the basis of sex, so males and females should have similar rates.³

If you hit someone’s car and do not stop as close to the scene of the accident as possible, you will face either a fine, imprisonment, or both, according to the California Vehicle Code.²

You might assume that car insurance in California is expensive, given the state’s high cost of living. However, the average annual cost in 2020 was only $1,050, $3 more than the national average.⁶ Keep rates low by following state laws and avoiding at-fault accidents. But if you’re the victim of a hit-and-run, your rates may increase, even if you had no fault in the situation, given you had to file a first-party claim.