Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the
crime of
colliding with a
person, their
personal property (including their
motor vehicle), or a
fixture, and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards. In many jurisdictions there may be an additional obligation to exchange
information about one's financial responsibility (including any applicable
insurance) or to summon
emergency services if they are needed.
Hit-and-run has severe legal consequences including the suspension or cancelling of one's
driver's license, as well as
imprisonment.
Hit-and-run laws arose from the difficulties that early
car accident victims faced in identifying perpetrators so that they could be brought to justice. Apart from the obvious ability of an automobile to flee the scene quickly (if still driveable), drivers often wore driving
goggles, vehicles at the time did not have
license plates, and roads were unpaved and thus quite dusty.
[Edward C. Fisher, Vehicle Traffic Law (Evanston, IL: Traffic Institute, Northwestern University, 1961): 289.] *
Road rage*
Vehicular homicide
