How Serious Is Failing to Report Striking a Highway Fixture

Attorney Answer

How serious this is depends on which code section is printed on your citation — and if it reads 49-1301, an Idaho appellate decision holds that section does not reach a single-vehicle collision with a highway fixture at all. Read the citation before you do anything else.

There are two different Idaho statutes people mean when they say "failure to report." Idaho Code § 49-1304 is the fixture provision. It states: "The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in damage to fixtures or other property legally upon or adjacent to a highway shall take reasonable steps to locate and notify the owner or person in charge of the property of the fact, of his name and address, the name of his insurance agent or company if he has automobile liability insurance, the motor vehicle registration number of the vehicle he is driving, and upon request and if available exhibit his driver's license." Note what that duty runs to — the owner of the property, not law enforcement — and note that it asks for reasonable steps to locate and notify, which is a standard you can meet in more than one way.

Idaho Code § 49-1305(1) is the other one. It requires a driver involved in an accident resulting in injury to or death of any person, or damage to the property of any one person in excess of $1,500, to give immediate notice by the quickest means of communication to the local police department, the county sheriff, or the nearest state police office. If the damage to the fixture is under that threshold and no one was hurt, § 49-1305 does not apply on its own terms.

Now the case, because it may be your whole defense. In State v. Wright the Idaho Court of Appeals reversed a misdemeanor conviction for leaving the scene of an accident, holding that Idaho Code § 49-1301(1) applies only where the accident involves another vehicle driven or attended by a person, and does not reach a single-vehicle accident in which the driver slid off an icy road and struck a traffic sign. Reading the statute to cover single-vehicle accidents would make its "driven or attended by any person" language meaningless, and the duty to remain at the scene exists to allow the exchange of information required by the neighboring section — which has no application when there is no other party to exchange information with. The court observed that § 49-1304 imposes the duty to notify the owner of damaged property, but that Wright had not been charged under that section. The defendant won, and § 49-1301 has not been amended since, so that construction stands.

On penalties, this answer is not going to guess. The classification and the maximum penalty depend on which section you were charged under, and that has not been confirmed here. Your citation, the charging document, or the court clerk will tell you, and your lawyer can confirm the exposure before you decide anything. What is worth saying is that a conviction of this type becomes part of your driving and criminal record, is visible to insurers and employers, and is not the kind of thing to dispose of by paying at the window to make it go away.

What you can do

1. Keep your citation, or photograph it, and take it to your lawyer. The exact code section and subsection are printed on it — there is no need to copy them out by hand. 2. Plead not guilty at your first appearance so nothing is resolved before you know what section you are facing. A not-guilty plea costs you nothing and preserves everything. 3. If the section is 49-1301, bring State v. Wright to your attorney's attention immediately. Under Wright a charge under that section for striking a highway fixture is legally defective, and that is a dismissal argument, not a mitigation argument. 4. If it is Idaho Code § 49-1304, gather proof of what you did to find the owner — calls to the city, county, or the Idaho Transportation Department, a note left, a report made, the time of day, whether the area was lit or occupied. The statute asks for reasonable steps to locate and notify, and evidence of those steps is your defense. 5. If it is Idaho Code § 49-1305, get the actual repair estimate. That section is keyed to damage exceeding $1,500 to any one person's property, and the amount is a factual element the State has to establish. 6. Ask the court about appointed counsel if you cannot afford a lawyer. Do not represent yourself on a charge whose viability depends on statutory construction. 7. Do not give a written or recorded statement to anyone about what happened before you have talked to a lawyer.