Fatal hit-and-run in CaliforniaYour family's own policy may still pay.

This page is for families who lost someone to a driver who did not stop. It covers what the driver's flight changes: the crime, the family's own uninsured motorist coverage and the reports it requires, victim compensation and the collision report. The rules every family shares are on our Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer page. If your family member survived, our guides to hit and run accidents and hit and run pedestrian accidents cover the injury claim.

Leaving the scene of a death

Vehicle Code section 20001(a) requires a driver involved in a crash that injures or kills another person to "immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident" and to meet the requirements of sections 20003 and 20004. Leaving the scene of a crash that kills someone can be charged as a felony. The hit-and-run itself carries up to four years in state prison. Under subdivision (b)(2), the sentence can be two, three or four years in state prison, or 90 days to one year in county jail, or a fine of $1,000 to $10,000, or both imprisonment and a fine.

The prosecutor decides the charge, and the family's civil claim does not depend on it. Our guide to the criminal case and the civil claim explains how the two cases run side by side if the driver is found.

Family and estate claims

A death creates two claims. In California, only the people named in Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 can bring a wrongful death claim. They can file it themselves, or the personal representative of the estate can file it on their behalf. Our guide to who can file a wrongful death claim goes through each family relationship.

A survival action is the claim the person who died could have brought if they had lived. It is brought by the personal representative of the estate or, if there is none, by the successor in interest. The estate can still recover the losses the person sustained or incurred before death, such as medical expenses and lost earnings, and any penalties or punitive damages the person could have recovered.

The 2026 survival rule

Except in qualifying elder or dependent adult abuse cases, a survival action filed on or after January 1, 2026 cannot recover damages for the pain, suffering, or disfigurement the person experienced before death. Those damages remain available only in actions filed on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2026, or granted a trial preference before January 1, 2022 (Code of Civil Procedure section 377.34(b)). Senate Bill 29 (2025), which would have extended the window, was never brought to a vote on the Assembly floor and did not pass by August 31, 2026, the last day for bills to pass in the 2025 to 2026 session. Law checked November 8, 2026. Our guide to survival actions explains the change and what the estate can still recover.

The family's damages

California's jury instruction for the death of an adult, CACI No. 3921, sets out what a wrongful death claim can include. The economic losses are the financial support the person who died would have contributed, the gifts or benefits the family would have expected, funeral and burial expenses, and the reasonable value of the household services that person would have provided. The noneconomic losses are the loss of that person's love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support, and, where the facts fit, the loss of the enjoyment of sexual relations and the loss of training and guidance. CACI No. 3921 tells the jury not to consider a family member's grief, sorrow, or mental anguish. The law compensates the relationship that was lost, not the pain of losing it. The jury usually returns one amount for all the heirs. The court decides how an award is divided, and it can divide a settlement when the heirs do not agree. What a family recovers depends on its own evidence, and no result is guaranteed.

Uninsured motorist coverage covers the damages the family could have recovered from the driver, up to the policy's limits. Our guide to damages and how they are divided explains each item.

The family's own coverage

When the driver is never identified, the law can treat the car as an uninsured motor vehicle, so the family's own coverage can stand in. A California auto policy with bodily injury liability coverage includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless the policyholder deleted or reduced it in writing. Umbrella and excess policies do not have to include it. If the person who died was covered under an auto policy, as the policyholder, a spouse, or a relative living in the same household, the family can bring the wrongful death claim under that policy's uninsured motorist coverage. A relative's own policy pays only if the person who died was covered under it.

Our guide to insurance after a fatal crash covers every policy that can pay, and our guide to uninsured and underinsured motorist claims explains how the coverage works day to day.

People the policy covers

Insurance Code section 11580.2(b) defines who is insured. It reaches the named insured and the named insured's spouse, and relatives of either who live in the same household "while occupants of a motor vehicle or otherwise," so the coverage is not limited to people who were inside a car. It also covers any other person while in or entering an insured vehicle. We check the policy of the person who died, the policy of every relative they lived with, and the policy on any vehicle they were in.

Conditions for unknown driver coverage

When the driver is never identified, the coverage applies only if the vehicle struck the person or the car they were in, the crash was reported to police within 24 hours, and a sworn statement was filed with the insurer within 30 days. A family member can make the report and the statement. These conditions are written into section 11580.2(b) itself, not left to each policy.

Two practical points. The statute says the statement is due "within 30 days thereafter" without saying whether the count starts at the crash or at the report, so we count from the crash. And because more than one policy may apply, we file the sworn statement within 30 days with every insurer whose uninsured motorist coverage may apply.

Victim compensation and funeral costs

The California Victim Compensation Board can help a family after a death caused by a drunk or drugged driver, a hit-and-run driver, a vehicle used on purpose, or certain vehicular manslaughter. It can pay up to $12,818 toward funeral and burial costs, after other sources. Apply within seven years. If the family later recovers money for the same costs, the board must be repaid, and it must be told of a lawsuit within 30 days of filing.

Government Code section 13955(e)(2) lists a death "caused by a driver who fails to stop at the scene of an accident in violation of Section 20001 of the Vehicle Code." The board can deny an application where the victim or the family "failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency" in catching and convicting the person responsible (section 13956), so keep the investigator's contact details and answer their requests. The person who paid for the funeral applies, not the funeral home, and the board does not pay for pain and suffering.

The collision report

The police agency that investigated the crash writes the collision report. In the City of Los Angeles that is usually LAPD, whose page says reports involving "an arrest, fatality, or juvenile cannot be released online and must be requested through United States Mail." LAPD asks requesters to allow at least 45 days from the collision and charges $19.00 by check or money order. A crash on a freeway is usually investigated by the California Highway Patrol, which releases its reports to a party of interest on form CHP 190.

The family does not need the report in hand to protect the claim, because the uninsured motorist dates are counted from the crash, not from the day the report arrives. Our post on getting an LAPD collision report walks through a request, and the wrongful death documents checklist covers the death certificate, the Medical Examiner's report and the other records a family needs.

Hit-and-run collisions by city

The California Office of Traffic Safety publishes yearly crash rankings built from SWITRS crash data. Its 2023 tables count hit-and-run crashes as fatal and injury collisions, so these numbers say how many hit-and-run crashes killed or injured someone, not how many people died. OTS notes that a crash the CHP reports on a road with shared jurisdiction does not count against the city, and that its rankings "are only indicators of potential problems."

Deadlines for the family

Most California wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within two years of the date of death (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). If a city, a county, the State, a school district, a transit agency or another public entity may be responsible, the family must first present a written claim to that entity within six months after the claim accrues, which is usually the date of death (Government Code section 911.2). The lawsuit against the entity then has its own deadline: six months after a written rejection notice is delivered or mailed, or two years from the date the claim accrued if no written notice is given (Government Code section 945.6). Some cases have different periods, including a death caused by a health care provider's professional negligence (Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5) and a claim against the United States (28 U.S.C. section 2401(b)). The dates in any one case should be calculated by a lawyer.

The uninsured motorist claim has its own deadline: within two years of the crash, not the death, you must sue the uninsured driver, reach a written agreement with your insurer, or start arbitration by certified mail. Our guide to the wrongful death statute of limitations lists each deadline with its start date.

Exceptions and hard cases

• Police identify the driver later. The unknown driver conditions then stop mattering, and the claim usually turns to that driver's insurance, or to the family's uninsured motorist coverage if the driver had none. The two year uninsured motorist date still runs from the crash.
• The car never touched the person or their vehicle. Unknown driver coverage requires physical contact, so a crash caused by a car that swerved away falls outside that part of the statute. Other claims may remain, and the facts are worth a lawyer's review.
• The vehicle belonged to a government. A vehicle owned by the United States, the State, or a city, county or other political subdivision is never an uninsured motor vehicle under the statute. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is due within six months after the claim accrues, usually the date of death (Government Code section 911.2), and the lawsuit deadline then follows Government Code section 945.6. Our guide to claims against a city or county explains that claim.
• The car belonged to someone in the same household. A vehicle owned or operated by the named insured or anyone living in the same household cannot be the uninsured vehicle under that household's policy.
• No one reported the crash within 24 hours. The 24 hour rule is written into the statute. Have a lawyer review the facts and the policy right away; this page does not promise that a late report can be excused.
• The driver was drunk as well as gone. If police find the driver and the driver was impaired, our guide to fatal drunk driving crashes covers punitive damages and claims against whoever served the alcohol.

First steps for the family

• Confirm who reported the crash to police, when, and to which agency, and keep the report number.
• Find the auto policy of the person who died and of every relative they lived with, and look for uninsured motorist coverage on the declarations page.
• Write down the date of the crash. The sworn statement is due within 30 days, and the uninsured motorist claim has a two year date counted from the crash.
• Keep funeral and burial receipts for the claim and for any victim compensation application.
• Pass anything that could identify the car, such as a neighbor's camera footage, to the investigating officer.

Our first 48 hours checklist lists the few steps that matter early, and our hit and run evidence checklist lists what witnesses should write down about the car. Terms such as successor in interest and uninsured motorist coverage are defined in our wrongful death glossary.

Next steps for the family

Nothing on this page asks the family to act alone. When you are ready, we start with the date of the crash, the police agency and the policies, and we send the sworn statement and track the deadlines from there.

Sources cited

• Vehicle Code section 20001 (duty to stop; punishment): California Legislative Information
• Insurance Code section 11580.2 (uninsured motorist coverage; unknown drivers; two year rule): California Legislative Information
• Government Code sections 13955, 13956 and 13957 (victim compensation)
• California Victim Compensation Board, who is eligible and responsibility for repayment
• Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (2026 edition), CACI No. 3921: PDF
• Los Angeles Police Department, traffic collision reports
• California Highway Patrol, collision report request, CHP 190
• California Office of Traffic Safety, 2023 crash rankings: Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Beverly Hills, Thousand Oaks and Calabasas, with the notes on how the rankings work