Hit and run pedestrian accidentsYour own policy stands in for the driver.

When a driver does not stop, the claim rests on three things: the criminal duty the driver broke, an uninsured motorist claim that substitutes for the missing defendant, and a state compensation program when there is no insurance anywhere. The right-of-way rules and the general deadlines are on our Los Angeles pedestrian accident lawyer page.

The driver had to stop and help

Section 20001(a) requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to another person, or in death, to immediately stop at the scene and to fulfill the duties in sections 20003 and 20004. Subdivision (b)(1) sets punishment at up to one year in county jail or a term in state prison, a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000, or both. Where the accident caused death or permanent serious injury, subdivision (b)(2) raises that to two, three or four years in state prison, or 90 days to one year in county jail. Subdivision (d) defines permanent serious injury as the loss or permanent impairment of function of a bodily member or organ.

None of that pays a hospital bill. It matters for two other reasons. A criminal case produces an investigative file and a restitution order, and a driver who fled has told the jury something about consciousness of fault that no witness could add. Your civil claim proceeds on its own track and on its own timeline, and it does not wait for a conviction.

How common hit and runs are here

Crosstown, working from Los Angeles Police Department Traffic Division data, reported that 98 people died in the City of Los Angeles in 2024 in collisions where a driver left the scene, down from 108 in 2023. That report covered a year in which traffic deaths exceeded the city's murder total for a second consecutive year. The California Office of Traffic Safety 2023 crash rankings for the City of Los Angeles count 2,549 hit and run fatal and injury collisions in a population of 3,819,600.

IIHS Fatality Facts 2024, from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, reports that 25 percent of United States pedestrian deaths in 2024 happened in hit and run crashes, against about 20 percent between 2015 and 2019. One pedestrian death in four now involves a driver who kept going. The OTS rankings also place each city on a scale that runs from 1 as the worst within its population group, so a ranking describes a rate rather than a raw count.

How your own policy pays instead

The statute then imposes conditions that exist only in the unknown driver case. Section 11580.2(b)(1) requires that the bodily injury arose out of physical contact of the vehicle with the insured. Subdivision (b)(2) requires that the accident be reported within 24 hours to the police department of the city where it happened, or to the sheriff or the local CHP headquarters in unincorporated territory. It also requires a statement under oath filed with the insurer within 30 days setting out the facts of a claim against a person whose identity cannot be ascertained.

The two year condition ends otherwise good claims. Section 11580.2(i)(1) says no cause of action accrues under the coverage unless one of three things happens within two years of the accident. Suit has been filed against the uninsured motorist, the amount due has been agreed, or the insured has formally instituted arbitration by written notice sent by certified mail. Negotiating with your own insurer for two years is not one of the three options.

Report it to police within 24 hours

The 24 hour reporting condition and the video canvass push in the same direction, so both happen at once. A collision report generates the DR number, the police report number every later request depends on, and our post on getting your LAPD traffic collision report covers who may obtain a copy and how long the wait runs. Where the person is still admitted, a family member makes the report.

1. Report within 24 hours. To the city police where the collision happened, or to the sheriff or CHP in unincorporated county territory. Get the report number in writing.
2. Write down the vehicle description while it is fresh. Color, body style, direction of travel, damage, any partial plate. Details fade in days and are needed for both the investigation and the sworn statement.
3. Canvass for cameras on foot. Every business, residence and parking structure with a view of the impact point, plus the block the vehicle fled toward.
4. Notify your own insurer and your household's insurers. The claim may sit on a policy you did not know applied, and the 30 day sworn statement is owed to whichever one responds.
5. Preserve the physical evidence. Broken trim, glass, paint transfer on clothing. Debris identifies a make and model, and street sweeping removes it.
6. Ask the investigating officer about a bulletin. A described vehicle with damage is often located by a body shop or a patrol unit within weeks.

When the usual route does not work

Four situations take a hit and run claim off the standard path.

• There was no contact. A driver who forced you off a curb without touching you fails the physical contact requirement in section 11580.2(b)(1). The claim survives only if the vehicle is identified, which makes the camera canvass the entire case.
• Nobody in the household owns a policy. Then the uninsured motorist route is closed. The California Victim Compensation Board lists hit and run among the crimes it covers, and its eligibility page sets a filing window of seven years from the crime and requires cooperation with police.
• The driver is identified later. The claim converts to an ordinary liability case against that driver and the insurer behind the vehicle, and the uninsured motorist claim stays open in the background until the coverage is confirmed.
• The vehicle belonged to a public agency. A city, county, transit or school district vehicle puts the claim on the six month government claim clock instead, and identification of the individual driver is not what starts it.

An insurance company paying an uninsured motorist claim is paying its own policyholder, and it still investigates fault, causation and the value of the injuries the way any insurer does. That is why we build an uninsured motorist file the way we build a claim against an at-fault driver. A driver in the same position faces the same process, which our Los Angeles car accident lawyer page covers, and a crosswalk claim against an identified driver runs the ordinary way described on our crosswalk accidents page. When the person struck is a child, the tolling and approval rules on our child pedestrian accidents page apply on top of everything here.