What happens if you didn’t notice an accident and drove away: judicial practice

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.

Find out more Procedure for compensation after an accident

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.

Options for action after a minor accident

Calling traffic police inspectors. Immediately after the collision, the culprit must stop the car, turn off the engine, turn on the hazard warning lights, and place a warning triangle in front of the car. If the hazard warning lights are turned off or the sign is missing, the inspector will additionally impose a fine on the driver (RUB 1,000).

Europrotocol. If the driver of the damaged car is next to it, the participants in the accident can negotiate without calling the traffic police. For this purpose, a European protocol is being drawn up. You can do without the traffic police if no one was injured in the accident and the amount of damage is less than 50 thousand rubles. The European protocol is drawn up for cars insured under MTPL.

With CASCO insurance. If one of the cars is insured under CASCO, you will have to call traffic police inspectors. To pay compensation under CASCO insurance, the insurer will require a certificate from the traffic police. Invest Consulting employees recommend additionally contacting insurance employees and notifying them about the incident immediately after the accident.

If the owner of the damaged car is not nearby. The best option is to call traffic police inspectors. They will document the incident, draw up a report, and record that the culprit of the accident did not try to escape.

Leave your business card and leave? If the person responsible for the collision does not have time to wait for the driver of the damaged car or traffic police officers, he can leave a business card on the windshield and drive away. Many people do this in the hope that the other driver will contact them later to resolve the issue. In practice it often happens differently. If the second driver has CASCO insurance, he will be forced to call the traffic police to receive compensation. In addition, there are no guarantees that the second driver will not decide to contact the traffic police “out of principle.” As a result, the culprit of the accident will lose his license. will provide legal assistance if problems arise.

Compensation under CASCO without involving the traffic police. A number of insurance companies pay drivers compensation under CASCO, even if the accident documents were not prepared by the traffic police or the police department. Such payments are possible 1 or 2 times a year, for certain damages and for a limited amount. If the insurance policy allows you to avoid filing an accident, drivers can resolve the problem amicably. It is better to draw up a receipt stating that the participants in the accident have no claims against each other.

Not all vehicle damage is considered a minor accident. The traffic police should be called only if the collision occurred while at least one of the vehicles was moving. If the car was damaged by an opening door, such an incident is recorded by police officers. The damage in this case will not be compensated under compulsory motor liability insurance.

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.

Find out more I left the scene of an accident and how to resolve the issue

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.

Help after an accident

What assistance those involved in an accident can expect depends on the terms of the insurance contract. If it involves the provision of emergency services, you need to contact the insurance company and call such a specialist. You can also call the emergency commissioner privately, for a fee. He will help:

• preliminarily determine the amount of damage;
• decide whether a traffic police call is necessary;
• draw up the European protocol correctly;
• resolve the dispute between the parties to the accident on the spot.

If disputes arise regarding the amount of damage or the circumstances of the accident, you can additionally order an independent examination. An auto expert can go to the scene of the accident or inspect and assess the damage to the car in an accident later. For minor accidents, special prices apply for such examinations.