Ohio Toughens Hit-and-Run Penalties: What Victims Should Do Next

Published September 27, 2011 · New Laws

As a police officer, I worked more hit-skip crashes than I can count, and the pattern rarely changed. A driver clips a motorcyclist on Salem Avenue, or runs a cyclist off Far Hills, or T-bones a car at a Kettering intersection, and then simply leaves. The victim is left with the injuries, the bills, and a license plate number they may or may not have caught. Until last week, if that driver was found, leaving the scene was the same level of offense whether the victim walked away or was paralyzed.

That changed on September 23, 2011, when House Bill 5 of the 129th General Assembly took effect. The new law rewrites Ohio's leaving-the-scene statutes to match the punishment to the harm. Here is what it does, and, more importantly for the people who read this blog, what it does not do.

What H.B. 5 changed

Ohio has three "hit-skip" statutes, and the bill amended all of them.

R.C. 4549.02 covers crashes on public roads. The basic duty is unchanged: a driver who knows he or she has been in a crash must stop, stay at the scene, and give a name, address, and vehicle registration number to the injured person, the other driver, or a police officer. If the injured person cannot take down that information, the driver must promptly notify the nearest police authority and remain until an officer arrives.

What is new is the penalty structure. As amended, failing to stop after a crash on a public road is:

• a first-degree misdemeanor in the ordinary case;
• a fifth-degree felony if the crash caused serious physical harm to a person; and
• a third-degree felony if the crash caused someone's death.

The court must also impose a class-five driver's license suspension, and under the statute the first six months of that suspension cannot be suspended by the judge. The offender must provide proof of financial responsibility; if the offender does not, the court may order restitution of up to $5,000 for economic loss caused by the crash.

R.C. 4549.021 covers crashes on private property, such as parking lots and driveways. H.B. 5 gave it the same tiered penalties: first-degree misdemeanor, fifth-degree felony for serious physical harm, third-degree felony for death, with the same mandatory suspension and restitution provisions.

R.C. 4549.03 covers damage to real property and things attached to it, such as fences, mailboxes, and utility poles. Leaving the scene of that kind of crash remains a first-degree misdemeanor, with the same proof-of-financial-responsibility and restitution provisions.

A note on what I can and cannot tell you: the effective date is September 23, 2011, and the penalty structure above is taken directly from the statutes as amended. I have not verified the signing date, so I will not state one here.

Why felony exposure matters to victims

A criminal statute does not pay a victim's medical bills. But the new felony tiers help injured people in three practical ways.

First, police priority. A felony hit-skip with a seriously injured victim gets investigative resources that a misdemeanor does not: follow-up on paint transfer and debris, canvassing for cameras, checking body shops, and pursuing partial plate information. The more serious the charge, the more likely the driver is identified. And an identified driver means an insurance policy to claim against.

Second, leverage. A driver facing a fifth- or third-degree felony has every incentive to cooperate, to admit involvement, and to have his insurer resolve the civil claim. A conviction for leaving the scene is also powerful evidence of consciousness of fault in a civil case.

Third, restitution. When the fleeing driver is uninsured and the court orders restitution, it is one more source of recovery, though the $5,000 cap means it will rarely cover a serious injury.

The problem the new law does not solve

The hard truth is that many hit-and-run drivers are never found, and many who are found have no insurance. That is why the most important question for a hit-skip victim is not about the criminal law at all. It is: what does my own auto policy say?

Uninsured motorist coverage is the answer, and we explained it in detail in our 2010 post on UM/UIM basics. Under Ohio's UM statute, R.C. 3937.18, an "uninsured motorist" includes a driver whose identity cannot be determined. In other words, your own UM coverage can pay for the injuries caused by a phantom driver, exactly as if that driver had been found and had no insurance.

There is a catch written into the statute. For an unidentified driver, the law requires "independent corroborative evidence" that the unknown driver caused your injuries. Your own testimony is not enough by itself; it must be supported by additional evidence. That is where the work is done in these cases. The physical evidence of the other vehicle, a police report taken at the scene, a witness who saw the other car, paint transfer on your bumper, a 911 recording: any of these can supply the corroboration the statute demands. None of them survive long if no one gathers them.

We handle these claims regularly and describe the process on our page on hit-and-run and uninsured driver claims. The point to understand now is that UM coverage is a claim against your own insurance company, which means your own company will investigate it, and may contest it, as if it were the defendant. It is also governed by your policy's deadlines, which can be shorter than the statutory ones, as the Supreme Court reminded everyone last month.

What to do if a driver leaves the scene

1. Call 911 from the scene, and insist on a report. The police report is the single best piece of corroborating evidence you will have. Give the officer every detail you remember about the other vehicle: color, type, damage, direction of travel, any part of the plate.
2. Get medical care the same day. We wrote last year about why seeing a doctor right away matters even if you think you are fine. In a hit-skip case it matters twice over, because the medical record ties your injuries to the crash on the date it happened.
3. Find witnesses before they leave. Names and phone numbers. Anyone who saw the other car.
4. Photograph everything. Your vehicle, the debris in the road, the skid marks, the paint on your fender.
5. Do not have your car repaired until it has been inspected and photographed. The damage is evidence of contact with another vehicle.
6. Report the claim to your own insurer promptly, and read the UM section of your policy for notice and suit deadlines.
7. Talk to a lawyer early. The corroboration requirement makes these claims evidence-driven, and the evidence has a short shelf life.

What this means for you

H.B. 5 makes it more likely that the driver who hit you will be found and held to account, and it gives prosecutors real leverage when that happens. But the civil recovery for a serious hit-and-run injury almost always depends on your own uninsured motorist coverage and on evidence gathered in the first days after the crash. If you do not have UM coverage, or carry only the minimum, this is the week to call your agent. If you have already been hit, call us.