Hit-and-run laws and what to do in Arizona

If another driver hit you and drove off, Arizona treats that as a crime, and the penalties climb with the harm done. In 2024, 16,136 reported crashes in the state involved a driver who left the scene. Those crashes killed 86 people and injured 4,202 more.¹ That's about one in every eight crashes on Arizona roads. What that driver was legally required to do, and how you get paid when police never find them, shapes your next few hours and your next two years.

What Arizona law required the other driver to do

Arizona splits its hit-and-run rules across several statutes, but the core duty repeats: stop, and stay. Under A.R.S. § 28-661, a driver in any crash involving injury or death has to immediately stop at the scene (or as close as possible, then return) and remain there until they've met the requirements of § 28-663.² When a crash damaged only a vehicle, § 28-662 imposes the same stop-and-remain duty, adding that the driver shouldn't block traffic more than necessary.³

Section 28-663 is where "remain" gets specific. The driver has to give their name, address, and the registration number of the vehicle they were driving, and show their driver license if asked.⁴ If someone is hurt, that driver also has to render reasonable assistance, which the statute defines to include arranging to get the injured person to a doctor or hospital when care is plainly needed.⁴

Two more sections cover the situations people overlook. If a driver hits your parked, unattended car, § 28-664 requires them to find you or leave a written note with their name and address on your vehicle.⁵ Damaging a fence, sign, or other roadside property triggers a similar duty to locate and notify the owner under § 28-665.⁶

The penalties for fleeing

This is where Arizona runs harder than many states, and the class of offense tracks the harm.

Leaving the scene of a crash that caused death or serious physical injury is a class 3 felony. If that fleeing driver also caused the crash, it becomes a class 2 felony.² Leaving a crash that caused a non-serious injury is a class 5 felony.² For a first-time offender, a class 2 felony carries a presumptive prison term of 5 years (as high as 12.5 with aggravating factors), a class 3 felony a presumptive 3.5 years, and a class 5 felony a presumptive 1.5 years.⁷

Property-damage-only hit-and-run is a class 1 misdemeanor, and so is leaving without notice after striking an unattended car.³⁵ One quieter rule surprises people: under § 28-663, failing to hand over your information is a class 1 misdemeanor, but failing to render aid to an injured person is a class 6 felony by itself.⁴

Arizona also revokes the fleeing driver's license on top of any jail time. Section 28-661 sets that revocation at 10 years when the crash involved a death, 5 years for serious physical injury, and 3 years for other injuries.²

What to do in the first hours after you're hit

Call the police and wait for them. The officer's report is your anchor, and Arizona ties its detail to a dollar figure: § 28-667 calls for a full written crash report whenever there's an injury, a death, or property damage over $2,000.⁸ Below that, with no injury or citation, the officer files only a short form. Making sure the responding officer sees the real extent of the damage is what gets you the complete report later, which you can obtain through Arizona's crash-report channels.

While the scene is fresh, write down everything you caught about the other vehicle: a partial plate, the make, the color, the direction it fled, and any dashcam or nearby camera that might have seen it. In Arizona this matters for a specific insurance reason.

How you actually get paid when the driver is gone

Arizona is an at-fault state, so ordinarily you recover from the driver who hit you. When that driver disappears and is never identified, your claim shifts to your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. Arizona insurers must offer UM and underinsured motorist coverage in writing, at limits equal to your bodily injury liability limits, and you can only turn it down in writing under A.R.S. § 20-259.01.⁹ If you never signed a rejection, you almost certainly carry it, and a hit-and-run driver counts as uninsured for this purpose.

Now the Arizona-specific catch. If your UM claim rests on an unidentified vehicle and there was no physical contact (someone forced you off the road and kept going, for instance), § 20-259.01 requires you to provide corroboration that the phantom vehicle actually caused the crash.⁹ The statute defines corroboration as additional confirming testimony, fact, or evidence beyond your own word. A witness, a 911 recording, or camera footage can meet it. If the other car physically struck you, this rule doesn't apply, but those notes you took at the scene may be exactly what your insurer asks for.

If you carry medical payments (med-pay) coverage, an optional add-on in Arizona, it can pay early medical bills regardless of fault, and your insurer can seek reimbursement from your recovery only for what it paid above $5,000.⁹ Arizona's minimum liability limits are 25/50/15 ($25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash, and $15,000 for property damage) for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020.¹⁰ Because UM is offered to match your own liability limits, that figure often sets the ceiling on a hit-and-run recovery unless you bought more.

Your civil deadlines and rights

A criminal case against the driver, if police ever catch them, is separate from your civil claim for money. In Arizona you generally have two years from the crash date to file a personal injury or property damage lawsuit under A.R.S. § 12-542.¹¹ Let it lapse and the claim is gone, so an unsolved hit-and-run still burns down that same clock.

Two features of Arizona law tilt toward the injured person. The state constitution bars any cap on damages for death or personal injury, so no statute limits what a jury can award you (Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 31).¹² And Arizona follows pure comparative negligence under § 12-2505, so even if you're assigned part of the blame, your recovery drops by your percentage rather than vanishing.¹³

If your car was repaired but is now worth less on paper because of the wreck, that lost value is its own claim in Arizona. You can read how that works on the diminished value page.

When to bring in a lawyer

Hit-and-run claims turn on things you don't control: whether the driver is found, what your policy actually says, and whether your insurer accepts your corroboration. If you were badly hurt, if your carrier is pushing back on a phantom-vehicle claim, or if the UM limits fall short of your bills, talk to an Arizona attorney while the evidence and the two-year window are still on your side. You can start with the legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Arizona Department of Transportation, 2024 Arizona Motor Vehicle Crash Facts (Table 5-3, Hit and Run Drivers Involved in Crashes). https://azdot.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2024-Crash-Facts.pdf

2. A.R.S. § 28-661 (leaving the scene of an accident involving death or personal injury). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00661.htm

3. A.R.S. § 28-662 (accident involving damage to a vehicle). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00662.htm

4. A.R.S. § 28-663 (duty to give information and render aid). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00663.htm

5. A.R.S. § 28-664 (duty on striking an unattended vehicle). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00664.htm

6. A.R.S. § 28-665 (duty on striking fixtures or other property). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00665.htm

7. A.R.S. § 13-702 (first-time felony sentencing ranges). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/00702.htm

8. A.R.S. § 28-667 (accident report requirements and the $2,000 threshold). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00667.htm

9. A.R.S. § 20-259.01 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage; corroboration for unidentified vehicles). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/20/00259-01.htm

10. A.R.S. § 28-4009 (minimum motor vehicle liability limits). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/04009.htm

11. A.R.S. § 12-542 (two-year limitations period for injury and property damage). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00542.htm

12. Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 31 (no cap on damages for death or personal injury). https://www.azleg.gov/const/2/31.htm

13. A.R.S. § 12-2505 (pure comparative negligence). https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/02505.htm