There are three statutes under which a driver is typically charged with fleeing the scene of an accident:
Accidents involving death or personal injury:
Sec. 11‑401. Motor vehicle accidents involving death or personal injuries.
(a) The driver of any vehicle involved in a motor vehicle accident resulting in personal injury to or death of any person shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such accident, or as close thereto as possible and shall then forthwith return to, and in every event shall remain at the scene of the accident until the requirements of Section 11‑403 have been fulfilled.
Failure to comply with this section is a felony. A personal injury is defined as, "any injury requiring immediate professional treatment in a medical facility or doctor's office."
Accidents involving property damage:
Sec. 11‑402. Motor vehicle accident involving damage to vehicle.
(a) The driver of any vehicle involved in a motor vehicle accident resulting only in damage to a vehicle which is driven or attended by any person shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such motor vehicle accident or as close thereto as possible, but shall forthwith return to and in every event shall remain at the scene of such motor vehicle accident until the requirements of Section 11‑403 have been fulfilled.
Failure to comply with this section may result in suspension of driving privileges if the value of the property damage was in excess of $1,000.00.
Sec. 11‑403. Duty to give information and render aid.
The driver of any vehicle involved in a motor vehicle accident resulting in injury to or death of any person or damage to any vehicle which is driven or attended by any person shall give the driver's name, address, registration number and owner of the vehicle the driver is operating and shall upon request and if available exhibit such driver's license to the person struck or the driver or occupant of or person attending any vehicle collided with and shall render to any person injured in such accident reasonable assistance, including the carrying or the making of arrangements for the carrying of such person to a physician, surgeon or hospital for medical or surgical treatment, if it is apparent that such treatment is necessary or if such carrying is requested by the injured person.
If none of the persons entitled to information pursuant to this Section is in condition to receive and understand such information and no police officer is present, such driver after rendering reasonable assistance shall forthwith report such motor vehicle accident at the nearest office of a duly authorized police authority, disclosing the information required by this Section.
After an accident a driver must:
- Provide the driver's name
- Provide the driver's address
- Provide the registration number of the vehicle
- Provide the name of the owner of the vehicle
- Exhibit their driver's license
- Render to any person injured in such accident reasonable assistance, including the carrying or the making of arrangements for the carrying of such person to a physician, surgeon or hospital for medical or surgical treatment, if it is apparent that such treatment is necessary or if such carrying is requested by the injured person.
My experience is that it is all but impossible to get a driver charged with felony hit-and-run after fleeing an accident with a bicyclist in Chicago. I have personally handled more than one case in which the driver outright fled the scene of the accident, leaving an injured person lying in the road and we eventually caught and identified the driver, and yet the driver was not charged criminally at all, or they were charged with only a misdemeanor violation of 5/11-403.
You also have to be able to identify the driver. Often times in hit-and-runs identification is a problem since the individual who was struck never actually saw the driver of the car. Identification of the actual driver is required for a criminal conviction. Merely accurately recording the plate is insufficient. If you just give CPD the plate they'll assume that anyone could have been driving the car, and they seldom follow up on those hit and runs. Any defense attorney will anticipate the identification defense and use it to get the charges dropped against their client if the hit-and-run victim cannot identify the actual driver.
We have a number of clients who came to us after being disappointed by the outcome of a criminal proceeding following a hit-and-run. Pursuing civil damages against a hit-and-run driver is substantially easier. For one thing, we don't need to identify the actual driver to initiate a lawsuit. We can just sue the registered owner of the vehicle under a negligent entrustment theory. The owner will inevitably know who was driving. In order for the owner to get "off the hook" in the civil case they'll identify the driver for us.
In instances where the driver is never caught never assume that nothing can be done. Some of my best results have been achieved in cases where the driver successfully fled the scene and was never identified. The trick in those cases is to find insurance coverage that might be activated by the accident, and since we deal with so many of these cases we are experts at finding insurance coverage. Always feel free to give us a call to discuss your case, and we'll be glad to answer any question you may have.
