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

A hit-and-run turns a bad day worse in seconds. The other driver takes off, and you're left with a damaged car and no plate number to point to. Illinois treats leaving the scene as a crime, sometimes a felony, and the state also gives you specific ways to recover even when the person who hit you is never found.

Crashes are common here. In Chicago alone, thatcarhitme.com counted 109,112 reported crashes in 2025, down slightly from 112,055 the year before.¹ January 2026 added another 9,461.² Hit-and-runs are part of that total, and the rules below apply to every one of them.

What Illinois requires every driver to do after a crash

Illinois law does not let anyone involved in a crash simply drive off, and these duties apply no matter who was at fault. Under 625 ILCS 5/11-403, a driver has to give their name, address, and vehicle registration number to the other people involved and to any police officer at the scene, and show their driver's license if asked.³ The same section requires "reasonable assistance" to anyone who is hurt, including arranging to get an injured person to a doctor or hospital when it appears necessary or the person asks for it.³

If the crash caused injury or death, 625 ILCS 5/11-401 requires the driver to stop right away at the scene, or as close to it as possible, and stay there until those duties are met.⁴ The statute defines "personal injury" narrowly for this purpose: any injury that needs immediate professional treatment in a medical facility or a doctor's office.⁴ A sore neck that sends you to the ER the next morning can be enough to pull the crash under the felony statute instead of the misdemeanor one.

When no police officer is present, 625 ILCS 5/11-407 says you have to notify the local police, the county sheriff, or the state police "by the fastest available means" if the crash caused injury, death, or more than $1,500 in property damage.⁵ The officer who investigates then prepares the official crash report. Drivers no longer mail in their own written report to the state; that self-reporting requirement was repealed in 2021.⁶

What makes it a hit-and-run, and what the driver faces

The crime is leaving before you meet those duties, and it doesn't matter whether you caused the crash. What changes the penalty is the harm the crash did.

When someone is injured or killed and the driver fails to stop, that's a Class 4 felony under 625 ILCS 5/11-401, which carries one to three years in prison.⁴⁷ The statute gives a driver who does leave a short window to make it right: report the crash to police as soon as possible, and in no case more than a half hour after it happened. If you were hospitalized, that clock runs from a half hour after you're discharged.⁴ Miss the window and the charge gets worse. Failing to report is a Class 2 felony, three to seven years, when no one died, and a Class 1 felony, four to fifteen years, when the crash was fatal.⁴⁸⁹ The failure to report is treated as its own offense, stacked on the failure to stop, which is why the classification climbs so sharply once that half hour passes. Any conviction under this section also triggers a mandatory license revocation by the Secretary of State.⁴

Property-only crashes are lighter but still criminal. Leaving the scene of a crash that damaged an occupied or attended vehicle is a Class A misdemeanor under 625 ILCS 5/11-402, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine as high as $2,500.¹⁰¹¹ Clip a parked car and drive off without leaving your information and you fall under 625 ILCS 5/11-404, also a Class A misdemeanor. That statute lets you meet the duty by leaving a written note with your name and address on the vehicle you hit.¹²

If the driver who hit you fled

Not knowing who hit you does not shut the door on recovery. Illinois requires every auto policy to include uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage, and a hit-and-run driver counts as "uninsured" under 215 ILCS 5/143a.¹³ So you can turn to your own insurer for injury costs even when the at-fault driver is never identified. Those uninsured motorist limits have to match your liability limits, which the state sets at a minimum of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash, and your underinsured motorist coverage defaults to the same limits unless you reduced or rejected it in writing.¹³

There's a catch on the property side. For uninsured motorist property damage, the same law lets insurers require actual physical contact between the two cars, so a driver who ran you off the road without touching your vehicle may leave you paying for the body damage yourself.¹³

Get the police crash report either way. In Illinois the investigating agency files it, and you can buy a copy from the Illinois State Police at isp.illinois.gov for $5 plus a card processing fee; a crash handled by a city or county department may sit with that agency instead.¹⁴ It's the document your insurer and any attorney start from. Our Illinois crash report page covers how to pull one.

Then watch the deadlines. A personal injury claim from a car crash has to be filed within two years of the crash date under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.¹⁵ A claim for the damage to your vehicle runs longer, five years, under the general property-damage limit at 735 ILCS 5/13-205.¹⁶ And if your car is worth less on resale now that it carries a crash on its history, that loss is a separate diminished value claim; our Illinois diminished value page explains how to pursue it.

Practical steps at the scene

Call 911 and stay put. Before the details fade, write down whatever you saw about the other car: its plate, make, color, and direction of travel. Photograph the damage and the surroundings. Ask nearby drivers and businesses whether they have dashcam or security video, because in a hit-and-run that footage is often what puts a name to the car.

If you were hurt or the damage is real money, talk to a lawyer early. The uninsured motorist side of your policy carries its own notice deadlines, and missing one can cost you the claim. You can find an Illinois attorney through our legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

thatcarhitme.com, Chicago year-over-year crash report, 2025 vs 2024. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/2025-annual-report
thatcarhitme.com, Chicago crash report, January 2026. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/january-2026-report
625 ILCS 5/11-403, Duty to give information and render aid. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-403.htm
625 ILCS 5/11-401, Motor vehicle crashes involving death or personal injuries. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-401.htm
625 ILCS 5/11-407, Duty to give notice of crash to police. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-407.htm
625 ILCS 5/11-406, repealed by Public Act 102-560, effective August 20, 2021. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-406.htm
730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-45, Class 4 felonies; sentence. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073000050K5-4.5-45.htm
730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-35, Class 2 felonies; sentence. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073000050K5-4.5-35.htm
730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-30, Class 1 felonies; sentence. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073000050K5-4.5-30.htm
625 ILCS 5/11-402, Motor vehicle crashes involving vehicle damage. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-402.htm
730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-55, Class A misdemeanors; sentence. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073000050K5-4.5-55.htm
625 ILCS 5/11-404, Duty upon damaging unattended vehicle or other property. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-404.htm
215 ILCS 5/143a, Uninsured and hit-and-run motor vehicle coverage. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext?DocName=021500050K143a
Illinois State Police, Crash Reports. https://isp.illinois.gov/CrashReports/EPay
735 ILCS 5/13-202, Personal injury; two years. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050K13-202.htm
735 ILCS 5/13-205, Five year limitation. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050k13-205.htm

Hit-and-Run Laws and What to Do in Illinois