Responsibility for leaving the scene of an accident: responsibilities and consequences

Is your license revoked if you leave the scene of an accident and don’t notice any damage?

Yes, they are deprived, and it is extremely difficult to challenge the court’s decision. The law harshly prosecutes drivers who try to escape from the scene of an accident without taking part in paperwork or providing assistance to victims. I would like to note right away that an attempt to avoid punishment for violating traffic rules in this way is almost always doomed to failure. According to video cameras, recorders and eyewitness testimony, the driver who left will be quickly found and his license will be deprived for a period of 1 to 1.5 years.

Here's what the law says about leaving the scene of an accident:

clause 7.2 of the traffic rules stipulates that every participant in an accident is obliged to immediately stop his car, not move it, put up emergency signs, and turn on the alarm;
You can leave the scene of the accident or move the car if this is required to deliver victims to the hospital or remove obstacles to the movement of other cars;
according to paragraphs 2.5-2.6.1 of the traffic rules, if one of the participants left the scene of the incident, a traffic police inspector must be called.

Note! Notification of an accident, including under the Europrotocol program, is not issued unilaterally. It is understood that the absence of the second driver means that he deliberately disappeared, trying to avoid punishment and establishing a picture of the incident. Even if there were legal grounds for leaving the scene of the collision, the departing car owner will have to prove his innocence.

Upon the absence of the second driver, a protocol is drawn up under Part 2 of Art. 12.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. If the accident results in the death of people or serious harm to health, a criminal case is initiated. Since the potential culprit is absent, he is deprived of the opportunity to immediately present evidence in his defense and explain that he unintentionally drove away from the scene of the accident without noticing the damage.

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In legal proceedings, the legality of drawing up the protocol can be challenged. Practice shows that only in exceptional cases will the court take into account the arguments of the offender. However, using the Supreme Court Resolution dated September 22, 2016 in case No. 38-AD16-5, and other judicial acts, it is possible to build a line of defense and prove that leaving the scene of an accident occurred unintentionally. It is almost impossible to do this without the support of a lawyer, so immediately contact experienced specialists.

What consequences might there be if both drivers left the scene of an accident, and how to avoid them?

If there is any damage to someone else's property, including municipal property (fence, pole, building, tree belonging to forestry), you cannot drive away on your own. in this case, it is highly likely that you will have to be punished, since the owner of the damaged item will call the police, there will probably be video recordings from surveillance cameras and witnesses, and finding the perpetrators of harm will be a matter of technology. Article on topic: Naturally, moving cars, delivering victims to a medical facility in case of emergency, and even leaving the scene of the accident if the driver has returned is not considered leaving the accident. Why this is so is quite clear. Leaving an accident must be recorded by traffic inspectors by drawing up a protocol on this administrative offense.

In what cases can you not notice the damage and drive away?

If we consider cases where a car owner deliberately flees the scene of an accident, it is difficult to prove innocence and avoid deprivation of rights. The only real defense may be the expiration of the statute of limitations for prosecution. However, traffic police specialists have long stopped making basic procedural errors; they transfer administrative material to the court immediately after establishing the identity of the violator.

We will figure out how you can prove that you left the scene of an accident without noticing the fact of the collision and damage. In practice, such cases may arise:

due to the insignificance of contact between two vehicles - for example, a second of friction between cars, contact with a bumper or other part of the car;
due to noise from road traffic, when the characteristic sounds of crackling, ringing, grinding are objectively impossible to hear;
due to the specific dimensions of your vehicle (for example, in case No. 38-AD16-5 we were talking about a trolleybus, whose dimensions and design create many blind spots);
in a non-contact accident when damage is caused to only one car - for example, if a load flying off your car damages another car.

Without noticing the external manifestations of the contact and the resulting damage, you may not pay attention to the signals of the victim and other road users. The situation will be even more difficult when there was no driver in the damaged car (for example, if it was parked on the road or in another place).

Legal advice . Having unintentionally left the scene of an accident, you cannot immediately indicate the absence of fault in the protocol and notice. Therefore, it is important to receive subpoenas, notifications from the traffic police or from the insurer in a timely manner. Knowing the date of the hearing, you can prepare evidence and find an experienced lawyer. Having ignored participation in the court of first instance, it is much more difficult to succeed on appeal.

If you find damage to the car already in the garage or after stopping, study the recording on the DVR (if you have one). Try to remember the entire path of movement, the possible location of the collision. It would be wise to return along the route. If the accident happened in the next few minutes or hours, there is a possibility that your absence has not yet been noticed. In this case, call the traffic police inspector yourself and participate in drawing up the protocol. It is easier to pay a fine for violating traffic rules than to prove innocence when deprived of rights under Art. 12.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

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How to prove innocence if you drove away and didn’t notice the accident

If you have received a subpoena, we advise you to come immediately and familiarize yourself with the case materials and make copies of documents. This will allow you to assess the seriousness of the charges, choose a defense tactic, prepare evidence, and contact a lawyer. In my practice, there have been cases when a completely unrelated driver was brought to justice. The victim’s video recorder showed only the general outline and color of the culprit’s car, without license plate numbers or other identifiers. When considering this case, all doubts were interpreted by the court in favor of the client, and we achieved a refusal to deprive of rights under Art. 12.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Legal advice . It is quite difficult to establish the identity of a driver who left the scene of an accident. It is almost impossible to prove who exactly was driving using camera or dash cam recordings. Therefore, traffic police officers have the right to draw up a protocol against the owner of the car if the evidence contains a license plate number or other identifier. The owner will have to prove that the car was driven by another person by proxy.

Based on the case materials, you can begin preparing for the trial. As stated in the Resolution in Case No. 38-AD16-5, the guilt of violating traffic rules lies in the deliberate nature of leaving the scene of the accident. The driver must be aware that he is breaking the law, knowingly allowing it to happen, or demonstrating indifference. If you did not notice the accident and drove away, you can prove the absence of guilt in the following ways:

order an examination of the damage to your car (they may not coincide with scratches, cracks or other defects on the victim’s car);
provide evidence that on the day specified in the protocol you were in another city or region (for example, on a business trip);
provide a description of the road situation at the scene of the accident, i.e. constant and active traffic, the presence of noisy production, railway transport routes;
describe the design features of your vehicle that make it impossible to see some damage and impact locations;
take to court a recording from your registrar, which does not contain any external manifestations of impacts or collisions;
call witnesses who also did not notice the moment of contact with another car (for example, you can invite the passengers of your car).

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Note! The law obliges to interpret all doubts and inconsistencies in the case in favor of the offender. It is difficult to count on this in the first instance, but higher courts can evaluate such moments. Therefore, when speaking during the trial, insist that all your arguments and explanations be included in the protocol.

If you were driving public or official transport, take your waybills and route certificates to the court. This will confirm that even without noticing the damage and leaving the scene of the accident, you acted unintentionally and followed the usual route of travel. You can also refer to the post-trip inspection, which did not reveal any damage to the body or parts of the vehicle.

Is it possible to challenge the punishment?

Even after presenting the above evidence, it is impossible to guarantee a positive outcome of the case. It is better to consider in advance the prospects for further appeal if you are deprived of your rights under Part 2 of Art. 12.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. If there are documents, records and your explanations in the case materials, they must be referred to in complaints. Naturally, at all stages of the appeal, use the support of a lawyer, as you will have to use additional defense options.

Arbitrage practice

To this article we have attached a copy of the Resolution of the RF Supreme Court in case No. 38-AD16-5. Be sure to look into it if you are charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Although the court considered a specific case regarding a trolleybus driver, most of the conclusions can be applied to other situations. We also recommend that you study our previous material, in which we talked about methods of defense in case of deprivation of rights for fleeing the scene of an accident.

Judicial practice in cases when it comes to unintentionally leaving the scene of an accident takes into account the following points:

consistency of the defendant’s position (for example, if from the first day onwards you stated in documents that you unintentionally drove away without noticing the accident, and did not change your position);
lack of direct evidence that it was your vehicle that caused damage to the victim’s car;
bias and one-sided description of the circumstances of the accident made by police officers (for example, if recordings from video recording cameras from the road were not requested, eyewitnesses were not interviewed).

Remember, if the driver left the scene of an accident without noticing the collision or damage, he is not guilty of violating traffic rules. By starting your defense in a timely manner, you will be able to achieve a positive court decision.

If you need help with Part 2 of Art. 12.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, although you left the scene of an accident without noticing this moment, contact our lawyers. Consultation can be obtained by calling the numbers listed on the website or using the feedback form. Do not delay contacting lawyers, as this will reduce the chances of fighting off the deprivation of rights.

How to prove unintentionally leaving the scene of an accident

There are actually many cases when a driver leaves the scene of an accident. Of course, most of them happen for certain reasons, for example, the driver did not have a driver's license or insurance, he was drunk, or there was a serious accident with loss of life. In such cases, the driver faces serious punishment, including criminal prosecution and prison time.

However, there is a small percentage of drivers who do not understand that an accident has occurred, and accordingly leave the scene, being fully confident that they have not violated anything and have not offended anyone. Before we look at the types of liability for leaving the scene of an accident, we should define what a traffic accident is and what main features it includes. After all, there can be a huge number of incidents on the road, but not all of them can be recognized as an accident. If this happens in an underground parking lot or in a courtyard parking lot, and cameras record this state of affairs, then it will most likely not be possible to avoid deprivation of rights.

However, with a sincere confession, you can try to convince the court to reduce the term of deprivation, for example, from 18 months to 12 months.

fix the position of the machine;
traces and fragments;
obtain contact information from eyewitnesses of the traffic accident.

If your vehicle interferes with the movement of other participants, namely, if other vehicles cannot pass. The driver’s action plan is the same - first the position of the car is recorded in front of witnesses, all traces are recorded, and only then the car can be moved to a safer place.

In this case, you do not need to call the traffic police and perform a whole series of steps to register and collect insurance documents. In this case, you cannot be punished for leaving the scene of an accident by losing your driver's license. However, there is a very fine line of responsibility here, and very often drivers ignore this situation and continue driving. For which they can be seriously punished.