{"id":877,"date":"2021-04-09T15:03:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=877"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:34:47","slug":"is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Leaving the Scene of an Accident a Crime in Florida?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While most people involved in car accidents stop to assess the damage, speak to anyone else involved, and give a statement to the police, some people panic and leave the place where the accident occurred without stopping. When they come to their senses, they often wonder if they can be charged with a crime for leaving the accident scene. If you were involved in a collision and then left, you should speak to a knowledgeable Clearwater criminal defense attorney as soon as possible to determine your options.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Florida Statutes Regarding Leaving the Scene of an Accident<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In Florida, the law imposes different duties on parties who are involved in accidents that cause <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/statutes\/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0300-0399\/0316\/Sections\/0316.061.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">property damage<\/a> and those that cause bodily harm. Specifically, if drivers are involved in collisions that only cause damage to vehicles or other property, they must immediately stop at the scene of the crash or as close as possible and must remain there until they have given a report or other information to the police. If they fail to do so, they may be charged with an offense that is a misdemeanor of the second degree, which is punishable by imprisonment for up to sixty days and a fine of up to $500.<\/p>\n<p>When a collision involves bodily harm, the requirements differ. In other words, drivers of cars involved in accidents that cause an injury to or death of another person must provide their names, addresses, and registration numbers of the vehicles they are operating, and if requested, their licenses to anyone injured in the crash or to the person attending a vehicle damaged in the crash. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/#more-877\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While most people involved in car accidents stop to assess the damage, speak to anyone else involved, and give a statement to the police, some people panic and leave the place where the accident occurred without stopping. When they come to their senses, they often wonder if they can be charged with a crime for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fleeing-police"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hit and Run Case: Leaving Scene Accident Crime<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When officers stop you, a leaving the scene issue can hinge on leaving scene accident crime. See how this ruling your defense. Find out your options today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Hit and Run Case: Leaving Scene Accident Crime\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"When officers stop you, a leaving the scene issue can hinge on leaving scene accident crime. See how this ruling your defense. Find out your options today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hit and Run Case: Leaving Scene Accident Crime","description":"When officers stop you, a leaving the scene issue can hinge on leaving scene accident crime. See how this ruling your defense. Find out your options today.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Hit and Run Case: Leaving Scene Accident Crime","twitter_description":"When officers stop you, a leaving the scene issue can hinge on leaving scene accident crime. See how this ruling your defense. Find out your options today.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Is Leaving the Scene of an Accident a Crime in Florida?","datePublished":"2021-04-09T19:03:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:34:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/"},"wordCount":556,"articleSection":["Fleeing Police"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/is-leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident-a-crime-in-florida\/","name":"Hit and Run Case: Leaving Scene Accident Crime","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-04-09T19:03:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:34:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"When officers stop you, a leaving the scene issue can hinge on leaving scene accident crime. 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