Recently I’ve noticed a number of different cases we’ve received that involve a hit-and-run accident in different neighborhoods of San Diego.
By law, if one is involved in a car accident in San Diego that results in property damage or in personal injury, the driver must stay at the scene of the accident and provide identification, as well as insurance information. On occasion, the person involved in the accident can panic and leave the scene of accident. Sometimes it’s due to a natural human reaction of panic, and sometimes it’s due to fear of legal consequences. However, leaving an accident scene is a crime.
Unfortunately, hit-and-run accidents might be more common than we think. Looking at the past 30 days of accidents reported in San Diego County, here’s what we found:
- A whopping 44% of accidents reported by the San Diego Police Department in its most recent traffic log report (https://www.sandiego.gov/police/pdf/trafficlogs/2012/2012-04-19_tlog.pdf) were hit-and-run accidents.
When looking at the distribution of accidents in San Diego County, we found that 50% of the hit-and-run accidents occurred in the following areas or neighborhoods: Downtown San Diego, Logan Heights, Mission Valley, College Area, Hillcrest, La Jolla, Pacific Beach, and Mission Bay.
More specifically, more than 8% of the accidents occurred in Downtown San Diego, followed by 6% for Hillcrest, the College area (SDSU), Mission Valley and Logan Heights. Five percent of the hit-and-run accidents reported in the county for the period occurred in La Jolla, and Pacific Beach. And 4% occurred in Mission Bay.
When any kind of car accident occurs, traffic laws require the drivers involved to follow certain procedures immediately after the incident. In most states, the things you must do depends on whether the accident caused damage to property only, caused injuries to others, or resulted in death.
If you are involved in a car accident with another vehicle, you must stop your car as soon as it safe to do so and exchange contact and insurance information with the other driver.
If the accident involves a parked car, or other property (running into a fence or tree for example) you must make a reasonable effort to identify the owner of the damaged property and let them know what happened. If it was a car, you can take the license plate number, or you can leave note with your information on it.
In an accident, drivers usually also have a legal duty to take reasonable efforts to help any injured person. This includes calling 911. It is also the driver’s responsibility to report the accident to the police.