Accused of Leaving a Crash You Do Not Remember

Attorney Answer

A letter routed to you through your insurance company is an accusation, not a criminal charge — and "I have no recollection of it" is a sentence for a lawyer, not for an adjuster or an officer. Right now one person has written down a version of events. Nothing about it has been tested, and the fastest way to make it worse is to start explaining yourself into someone else's file.

Florida's leaving-the-scene statutes are built around a fact the accuser has to establish first: that you were the driver of a vehicle involved in the crash. For a crash with property damage only, Fla. Stat. § 316.061(1) provides: "The driver of any vehicle involved in a crash resulting only in damage to a vehicle or other property which is driven or attended by any person shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such crash or as close thereto as possible, and shall forthwith return to, and in every event shall remain at, the scene of the crash until he or she has fulfilled the requirements of s. 316.062. A person who violates this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083." Where a person was injured, Fla. Stat. § 316.027 applies instead: willfully leaving is a third-degree felony under (2)(a), a second-degree felony where there was serious bodily injury under (2)(b), and a first-degree felony where someone died under (2)(c). Those felony paragraphs also carry a driver license revocation of at least three years under (2)(e) and restitution under (2)(d).

Understand what your insurer is doing. It is handling a liability claim made under your policy, and it will investigate — which often means asking you for a recorded statement. That is not a neutral conversation. Fla. Stat. § 316.066(4) provides: "Except as specified in this subsection, each crash report made by a person involved in a crash and any statement made by such person to a law enforcement officer for the purpose of completing a crash report required by this section shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting. Such report or statement may not be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal." But that protects a crash report and a statement made to an officer for the purpose of completing one. It does not reach a recorded call with an adjuster, a letter you write, or a text.

Your policy also has a cooperation clause, and it can pull against your right to stay silent while an accusation of a crime is open. Which way to go is a legal decision that depends on the policy language and what is actually being alleged, and it is not one to make by answering the phone.

What you can do

1. Do not reply to the other driver or their letter, and do not contact them to ask what they think happened.

2. Talk to a Florida criminal defense attorney before you give your insurer a recorded statement or answer questions about the crash.

3. Photograph your vehicle now, from several angles, before any repair. That preserves a physical fact rather than creating a statement.

4. Preserve what already exists — service and repair records, toll and card statements, work schedules, calendar entries. Do not write out an account of any day for anyone.

5. Do not repair, repaint, or sell the vehicle while the accusation is open.

6. Ask the lawyer to find out whether a crash report or an investigation exists. A call from you is contact with the agency that would be investigating you.

7. If a citation, summons, or court date arrives, do not ignore it and do not pay it like a traffic ticket.

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. How long the State has to bring a charge is set by the criminal limitations statutes and depends on whether the accusation is the second-degree misdemeanor in Fla. Stat. § 316.061 or a felony under Fla. Stat. § 316.027. On the civil side, a negligence claim runs under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, and which period applies depends on the date of the crash: for a crash before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period; for a crash on or after that date, two years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a). The same 2023 law that shortened the period also changed Florida's shared-fault rule, so the crash date decides both. Have a Florida attorney key every deadline to your actual facts rather than working from either number here.