When the police contact you after you left an accident scene

When the police call, panic makes it easy to say whatever you remember. On the call, just agree a date to appear, and first check the points below.

• Ask whether the other party says they were injured or only that the car or property was damaged. This decides which offense applies.
• Take out the dashcam memory card right away and keep the original. The accident footage could be overwritten.
• Before repairing scratches or dents on your car, take photos with the date visible.
• Write down your route and times on the day of the accident, any passengers and your call records.
• Report the accident to your insurer and get the claim number.

Rushing to repair or wash your car before you appear raises suspicion that you tried to remove traces. Deleting or formatting the dashcam is an even bigger problem.

Also avoid contacting the other party emotionally or pressing them to withdraw the report. If contact is needed, keep it to calmly passing on the insurance claim and your apology, and it is better to settle after the facts have been sorted out.

If someone was injured and you left without helping them, hit-and-run causing injury (도주치상) under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (특정범죄 가중처벌 등에 관한 법률) is at issue, with a statutory penalty of imprisonment for a fixed term of 1 year or more, or a fine of 5 million to 30 million won. According to court rulings, leaving an injured person behind can count as fleeing even if you handed over your contact details.

If only property was damaged and you did not take the necessary measures, it is failure to take measures after an accident (사고후미조치) under the Road Traffic Act (도로교통법), punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years or a fine of up to 15 million won. If you only scratched a parked car and did not leave your contact details, it is much lighter: a fine of up to 200,000 won, short detention or a petty fine.

If you did not know about the accident, you need to show with the dashcam footage and photos how light the impact was, whether there was a noise and whether the damage to the car was noticeable. If you knew but left, set out truthfully why you left, how you judged the victim's condition and whether you tried to get in touch afterwards.

Filling in parts you are not sure about with guesses will count against you later when they do not match the footage. It is better to say you do not know what you do not know. Read the whole record, and if anything is written differently from what you said, ask for it to be corrected before signing.

Criminal proceedings go ahead separately from the insurance claim, so a settlement with the victim greatly affects the outcome. If someone was injured, consider a criminal settlement while checking on their recovery, and if settlement is difficult, consider a criminal deposit (형사공탁).

If your licence is revoked for injuring someone and failing to take the necessary measures and report it, you cannot get a licence again for 4 years from revocation, or 5 years if combined with drink-driving. If you drive for a living, you also need to look within the deadline at whether there are grounds to challenge the licence decision, alongside the criminal outcome.

At the consultation, we look at the dashcam footage and photos with you and first judge whether there is room to dispute that you fled, or whether the case will be treated as failure to take measures after an accident. We practise likely questions before questioning, attend the questioning at the traffic investigation unit with you, and submit a defense counsel's written opinion on what happened and the compensation made. If a date to appear has been set, contact us through the chat on this page.