Leaving the Scene of a Car Accident
Is it illegal to leave the scene of a car accident if you weren’t involved and no one was hurt?
It is illegal to leave the scene of an accident without providing full and accurate contact information. If the police are called, you need to wait for them to allow you to leave. Leaving can result in criminal charges.
For a minor accident, with no injuries and no damage other than to the cars themselves, you can exchange information and agree with the other driver to file a police report.
I’m leaving my apartment ready to get something to eat from WaWa (the turkey club is delicious) and I decide to drive through 4th street and pick up Delaware Ave on Race instead of making a U turn to get to Spring Garden and hitting it there which is my norm. That decision turned out to be costly. I get up to 4th and Callowhill and there is a small green car next to me that guns it while the light is still red (it turns green momentarily). He’s driving way too fast for this road and I’m trailing behind him when all of a sudden there is a blind cross street that from past experience I know is dangerous. The black wagon starts creeping up (he can’t see fully down the one way street) and finally decides to drive straight across 4th where Maniac McGee is flying. Maniac sees the black car but by then it was too late as he slams on his brakes and I’m watching from behind maybe 20 feet. Green car’s brakes don’t stop on a dime and he t-bones the wagon. Considering I haven’t seen many accidents I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of casualties of war.
Both airbags went off and I was the first person at the scene of the accident. The green car guy gets out and I ask if he’s OK and he was fine. He seemed like a foreigner but it’s hard to tell. As we approach the wagon I can see both air bags are deployed and the driver was making an effort to open his crunched door. A female gets out of the passenger side and appears to be alright. The driver soon gets out and has a stream of blood coming from what I thought was his nose but might have been a cut on his forehead. I run into the restaurant and get the guy some napkins. He didn’t say much and neither did anyone else. I could tell he was pissed but he didn’t erupt. More people started crowding around and I wasn’t sure what to do. Everyone was relatively fine, the cars had some damage and the authorities had been called. I wasn’t sure if I should have stayed or left.