Leaving The Scene Of A Single-Car Crash After Drinking

Attorney Answer

This is a criminal-defense question before it is anything else, and you should assume you will be identified. A wallet with a license in it, left where the crash happened, removes the practical question of who was driving. That changes what matters now: not whether anyone finds out, but who speaks for you when they do. Call a criminal-defense attorney in the county where this happened today, before any contact with police, with a tow yard, with the bar, with the property owner, or with any insurance company — including your own.

There are two separate exposures here, and they are charged separately.

The first is leaving. Cal. Veh. Code § 20002(a) applies to an accident that results only in damage to property, and a roadside tree is property — usually a city's or a private owner's, not nobody's. The section requires the driver to stop immediately at the nearest location that will not impede traffic, and § 20002(a)(1)-(2) sets out the steps the driver must then take to identify himself to the owner of the damaged property. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. If anyone other than the driver had been injured, the far more serious duty in Cal. Veh. Code § 20001(a) would apply instead, with exposure that can reach state prison.

The second is the drinking, and here you should be told plainly what this page cannot do. Whether two beers supports an impaired-driving charge is not answered by counting drinks; it turns on evidence of impairment and on what proof exists of when you drank and when you drove. That is outside what can be answered from general sources, and it is a question for a defense attorney with your facts in front of them, not for a page. Leaving the scene did not make that question go away, and depending on what the investigation finds it may have made it harder to answer either way.

The civil side is smaller and slower. Whoever owns the tree can claim the cost of the damage. Under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338, a claim for injury to real property runs three years under subdivision (b), and a claim for injury to goods or chattels three years under subdivision (c)(1) — longer than the two years Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 gives for injury to a person.

What you can do

1. Call a criminal-defense attorney in that county today. Everything else on this list waits for that call.

2. Do not write out an account of that night — not for an insurer, not in a text or an email, not for a friend. What you write can be used in a criminal case.

3. Do not go back for the wallet, and do not send anyone else to get it. Whatever is there is evidence now, and how it is handled is a decision for your lawyer.

4. Preserve what already exists and change nothing: the vehicle in its current condition, receipts, texts, ride-share and card records, and phone data. Do not repair or wash the car and do not delete messages.

5. If police or an investigator contact you, say you want a lawyer present before answering questions, and then stop. That is not evidence of guilt and it cannot be used as if it were.

6. Ask your lawyer what, if anything, you are still required to report and to whom, and whether and how to give your own insurer the notice your policy requires. Do not decide that on your own while this is open.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. On the civil side, a claim for the damaged tree or other roadside property runs under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338 — three years under subdivision (b) for injury to real property, three under subdivision (c)(1) for goods and chattels. The deadlines that matter more to you are on the criminal side, and how long the state has to file a charge under Cal. Veh. Code § 20002 or on an impaired-driving allegation depends on the charge and on your facts. This page cannot compute any of it. Have a local criminal-defense attorney review the actual dates now rather than waiting for contact.