It is a serious offense for a driver to leave the scene of a traffic accident. The person who committed such a violation faces punishment in the form of arrest or deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle.
Drivers often leave the scene of a traffic accident, and most often this is done by the party that violated the traffic rules. Administrative liability has been established for such an act, and the punishment is rather severe. The reason for this is the high social danger that the abandonment of the accident site entails. As a rule, such a driver seeks to avoid responsibility and harms the interests of other participants in the accident. Often, as a result of an incident, there is a threat to the life and health of its participants, which also increases the severity of this violation. As punishment, deprivation of rights may be imposed for a period of one to one and a half years. An alternative type of liability is arrest, which can last up to fifteen days.
It is important to take into account that, according to administrative law, arrest is a stricter punishment than deprivation of rights, and the tightening of liability upon appeal is not allowed (prohibited by law).
How is the type of punishment determined?
Responsibility for leaving the scene of a road traffic accident by its participant is determined in the process of judicial consideration of the case. At the same time, judicial practice proceeds from the preferential imposition of punishment in the form of deprivation of the right to drive a car. The exact penalty depends on the intentions of the driver who did the same. So, a more serious responsibility will be in identifying the intention to escape punishment, to harm other participants in the accident. The court also assesses other circumstances of the case, including the consequences that followed.
A less severe punishment may be imposed if the driver's abandonment of the accident site only caused a violation of the procedure for registering the results of the accident.
Can responsibility be avoided or changed?
Some drivers try to evade responsibility for leaving the scene of an accident, citing the insignificance of this violation. But the presence in the law of such a basis for exemption from punishment does not allow it to be applied in this case, since the offense is socially dangerous. Also, some violators who have received a punishment in the form of deprivation of rights are trying to appeal against it in a higher court, citing the need to prosecute in the form of arrest.
