A hit-and-run pushed my car through a red light: will I be ticketed in New York?

Attorney Answer

Being pushed through a signal by another vehicle is not the same as driving through it, and that difference is the heart of any defense — but it is a defense you have to raise and support, not something that resolves itself. Two things follow from that. Document now that you were struck, and speak to a New York attorney before you respond to any summons or notice, because how you answer it can affect your license and can also be used against you in the claim for your car.

A distinction worth understanding first: a notice generated by a red-light camera and a summons handed over or mailed by a police officer are different instruments, arrive from different offices and are answered in different ways. What any particular notice charges will be printed on the notice itself, and that text is what an attorney will work from.

What the other driver did is squarely covered. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600 requires a driver who knows or has cause to know that damage has been caused to another's property by an incident involving their vehicle to stop before leaving, exhibit their license and insurance identification card, and give their name, address and insurance information to the person whose property was damaged — or, if that person is not present, to report the incident as soon as physically able to the nearest police station or judicial officer. For property damage the statute provides: "A violation of the provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision shall constitute a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of up to two hundred fifty dollars or a sentence of imprisonment for up to fifteen days or both such fine and imprisonment." Where personal injury is involved the exposure is higher and can be a misdemeanour.

Identifying that driver is what drives your money claim, and it is a separate track from the ticket. If the driver is never identified, whether anything is recovered generally depends on the coverages in your own policy rather than on a statute.

What you can do

1. Report the collision to the police if you have not, and make sure the report records that your vehicle was struck and pushed. A report that describes only a car in the intersection is the version that will be read later.

2. Photograph the impact damage before repairs. The location and direction of the damage is the physical evidence that you were hit from the side or behind rather than simply driving forward.

3. Ask immediately for any video — intersection cameras, nearby businesses, buses, other drivers' dashcams. Most of it is overwritten within days.

4. Write down what you remember about the other vehicle and about the sequence: where you were stopped, what struck you, where you ended up.

5. Keep any notice or summons and note the date it arrived. Do not respond to it, or discuss the accident with anyone but your insurer and your attorney, until you have advice.

6. Notify your insurer, and ask what coverage applies if the other driver is never found.

⏱ Time limits apply. For the damage to your vehicle, CPLR 214(4) allows three years to commence an action to recover damages for an injury to property, measured from the date of the collision, subject to the exceptions § 214 names; if anyone was injured, CPLR 214(5) applies its own three-year period. Those civil periods have nothing to do with the deadline on a traffic notice, which is set by the notice itself and is short — days or weeks, not years — and is not stated here because it depends on the instrument you received. Have a New York attorney look at the actual notice and at the dates in your file promptly rather than letting either clock run.