The Virginia Code Sections on Hit and Run, Explained

Virginia’s hit-and-run law is one short article of Title 46.2 of the Code of Virginia, running from § 46.2-894 to § 46.2-900. Seven sections do the whole job: two impose duties on drivers, two impose duties on passengers, one says the reports are in addition to others, one extends the article to private property, and one sets the penalties for part of it. This page walks them in order; the plain-English overview is the better starting point if section numbers are not what you came for.

The hit and run sections of the Virginia Code, in order

Section	What it does
§ 46.2-894	Driver’s duties where a person is injured or killed, or attended property is damaged — and its own penalty
§ 46.2-895	Duty of a passenger aged 16 or older to report, in a § 46.2-894 accident
§ 46.2-896	Driver’s duties where only unattended property is damaged
§ 46.2-897	Duty of a passenger aged 16 or older to report, in a § 46.2-896 accident
§ 46.2-898	These reports are in addition to other accident reports
§ 46.2-899	The article applies on private property as well as public roads
§ 46.2-900	Penalty for violations of §§ 46.2-895 through 46.2-897

§ 46.2-894 — injury, death or attended property

The main section. It applies to “the driver of any vehicle involved in an accident in which a person is killed or injured or in which an attended vehicle or other attended property is damaged.”

The driver must immediately stop as close to the scene as possible without obstructing traffic, and report name, address, driver’s license number and vehicle registration number forthwith. The section names the recipients: the State Police or the local law-enforcement agency, the person struck and injured where that person appears capable of understanding and retaining the information, or the driver or some other occupant of the vehicle collided with, or the custodian of other damaged property.

The driver must also render reasonable assistance to anyone injured, “including taking such injured person to a physician, surgeon, or hospital if it is apparent that medical treatment is necessary or is requested by the injured person.”

A second paragraph deals with the driver who could not comply because of his own injuries: he must make the required report to law enforcement as soon as reasonably possible, make a reasonable effort to locate the other people involved, and give them the same four items.

The third paragraph carries the penalty, and this is the section’s own — not § 46.2-900’s. A violation is (i) a Class 5 felony if the accident results in injury to or the death of any person, or in more than $1,000 of damage to property, and (ii) a Class 1 misdemeanor if it results in damage of $1,000 or less to property.

§ 46.2-895 and § 46.2-897 — the passenger’s duty to report

These two sections are easy to miss and they reach people who were not driving.

Section 46.2-895 applies where the driver fails to stop and make the report § 46.2-894 requires. Every person sixteen years of age or older in the vehicle at the time who has knowledge of the accident then has a duty to ensure that a report is made within 24 hours — to the State Police, or, where the accident occurs in a city or town, to the local law-enforcement agency. The report must include that person’s own name and address and such other information within his knowledge as the driver was required to report.

Section 46.2-897 does the same thing for the unattended-property case: where the driver fails to stop and make a reasonable search for the owner, or fails to leave a note as § 46.2-896 requires, the 16-or-older passenger with knowledge of the accident carries the same 24-hour reporting duty.

Neither section contains a penalty. Both are punished under § 46.2-900.

§ 46.2-896 — unattended property

This section applies where “no person is killed or injured, but in which an unattended vehicle or other unattended property is damaged.” It sets out a sequence, and each step matters.

1. Make a reasonable effort to find the owner or custodian, and report the § 46.2-894 information to them if they are found.
2. If the owner or custodian cannot be found, leave “a note or other sufficient information including driver identification and contact information in a conspicuous place at the scene of the accident.”
3. And report the accident in writing within 24 hours to the State Police or the local law-enforcement agency.

The note and the written report must both contain the § 46.2-894 information. The written report must in addition state “the date, time, and place of the accident and the driver’s description of the property damage.”

The section has the same allowance as § 46.2-894 for a driver whose own injuries prevented compliance. What it does not have is any suggestion that a note by itself discharges the duty — the parked-car page takes that sequence step by step.

§ 46.2-898 — the reports are in addition to others

One sentence: “The reports required by §§ 46.2-894 through 46.2-897 are in addition to other accident reports required by this title and shall be made irrespective of the amount of property damage involved.”

Two things follow. There is no dollar floor below which the article’s reporting duties switch off. And complying with this article does not answer any other reporting duty Title 46.2 imposes — notably § 46.2-371, which requires the driver in any accident resulting in injury or death, or someone acting for him, to give immediate notice to a law-enforcement officer, and makes a willful failure a Class 4 misdemeanor.

§ 46.2-899 — private property is covered

Also one sentence: “The provisions of this article shall apply irrespective of whether such accident occurs on the public streets or highways or on private property.”

Parking lots, private drives and apartment complexes are inside the article. This is the single most commonly mistaken point about Virginia hit-and-run law.

§ 46.2-900 — the penalty section

Section 46.2-900 is headed “Penalty for violation of §§ 46.2-895 through 46.2-897,” and that title is exact: it penalises breaches of the two passenger-duty sections and of the unattended-property section. It does not penalise § 46.2-894, which carries its own penalty.

The ladder is:

• a Class 6 felony where the accident results in injury to or the death of any person;
• a Class 1 misdemeanor where it results only in damage to property; and
• a Class 4 misdemeanor where the vehicle or other property struck is unattended and such damage is less than $250.

Which limb applies turns on the attended and unattended distinction. The section closes with a DMV consequence: “A motor vehicle operator convicted of a Class 4 misdemeanor under this section shall be assigned three demerit points by the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.”

A numbering trap worth knowing

Read down the list and § 46.2-898 looks like the penalty section — it sits where a penalty section usually sits, immediately after the duties. It is not. It is the “reports are in addition to others” section. The penalties are in § 46.2-900, two sections further on, and only for §§ 46.2-895 through 46.2-897.

Get that backwards and the whole structure inverts: § 46.2-894’s penalty goes missing and § 46.2-900’s Class 6 felony gets attached to the driver, when it belongs to the passenger duties.

What this article does not do

Reading the seven sections together, three limits are as useful as the duties themselves.

It does not ask who caused the accident. Both § 46.2-894 and § 46.2-896 attach their duties to the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident. A driver who was struck by someone else has the same obligations as the driver who caused it, and liability for the damage is decided elsewhere.

It does not set a damage floor. Section 46.2-898 makes the reports due irrespective of the amount of property damage. The dollar figures decide how serious the offense is, not whether there is one.

It does not deal with the civil claim. Nothing in these sections says who pays for the repairs, how a claim is valued or how long a claimant has to bring one. Those questions sit in other parts of Virginia law and are for a Virginia attorney, not for a reading of Title 46.2.

Which section applies to your situation

Facts	Duties	Penalty
Someone injured or killed	§ 46.2-894	§ 46.2-894, Class 5 felony
Attended property damaged, over $1,000	§ 46.2-894	§ 46.2-894, Class 5 felony
Attended property damaged, $1,000 or less	§ 46.2-894	§ 46.2-894, Class 1 misdemeanor
Only unattended property damaged, $250 or more	§ 46.2-896	§ 46.2-900, Class 1 misdemeanor
Only unattended property damaged, under $250	§ 46.2-896	§ 46.2-900, Class 4 misdemeanor, 3 points
Passenger aged 16+ who did not report	§§ 46.2-895, 46.2-897	§ 46.2-900, by outcome

The punishment each class carries is set by § 18.2-10 for felonies and § 18.2-11 for misdemeanors, and the penalty page sets them out in full. The text quoted above is the current text on Virginia’s Legislative Information System; the Code is amended most years, with new laws generally effective 1 July, so check the section itself before relying on it, and take a specific charge to a Virginia attorney.