Giving a Witness Statement After Seeing a Crash

Attorney Answer

A person who only watched a crash from another car has no duty to stop under California's hit-and-run statutes — both of them are written to the driver of a vehicle involved in the accident. But your question tells me you are not certain which side of that line you are on, and neither am I from what you have written. Before you give a witness statement to anyone, have a criminal-defense lawyer tell you where you stand. A witness statement is still a statement, and it will describe your own driving too.

Look at how the statutes are written, because the first words are the operative ones. Cal. Veh. Code § 20001(a) requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person other than himself or herself, or in the death of a person, to stop immediately at the scene. Cal. Veh. Code § 20002(a) uses the same construction for accidents causing only property damage: it requires the driver of any vehicle involved in such an accident to stop immediately at the nearest location that will not impede traffic. Neither section reaches a person who saw a collision from a different car and kept going.

The penalties explain why the difference matters. A violation of § 20002 is a misdemeanor, up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000. A violation of § 20001 carries up to a year in county jail with a fine of $1,000 to $10,000, and where there was death or permanent serious injury, two to four years in state prison or 90 days to a year in county jail. You have described people being injured, so this sits on the serious side of the line for whoever was involved.

The word doing the work in both statutes is "involved," and it is not a synonym for "at fault." A vehicle can be involved in a collision it did not touch. That is a fact question, and it is the reason I am not willing to tell you flatly that you are only a witness — you were there, another driver you know left the scene, and I do not know from your description what your own car did. A lawyer who can ask you questions can answer that in one conversation. A page cannot.

So do not solve it by talking. There is a real instinct, when you have seen something bad, to be helpful and explain everything to the first officer who asks. That instinct is a good one in the abstract and a costly one when your own conduct is anywhere in the picture. What you say as a witness cannot be separated later from what you say about yourself.

What you can do

1. Before you give a statement to police, an investigator, or any insurer, talk to a criminal-defense lawyer in your county and describe your own position, not just what you saw.

2. Do not write out or record your own account of what happened, and do not post about it.

3. Preserve what already exists and do not delete anything: dashcam footage, photographs, text messages, and location history already on your phone. Preserving is different from creating; do not create new material about the crash.

4. If you are served with a subpoena or contacted by a court, take it to a lawyer immediately and do not ignore it.

5. If you have already given a statement, tell the lawyer exactly what you said, in full. That conversation is confidential and it changes the advice.

6. Ask the lawyer whether anything about your friend's situation creates exposure for you, and whether you should be talking to your friend about it at all.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. The people who were injured would have two years under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, and claims for vehicle damage three years under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1); if a public entity is involved, Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) requires a claim within six months of accrual, which is far shorter than either. Criminal timelines run separately, on their own dates. Which of these touch you depends on facts I do not have — have a local attorney review them before you do anything else.