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

A hit-and-run leaves you with two problems at once: the crash itself, and a driver who may never be identified. Kansas law is specific about what every driver owes at the scene, what a fleeing driver is charged with, and how you can still recover when the other car is gone. Here is how those rules work in Kansas, and what to do next.

What Kansas requires every driver to do at the scene

Under K.S.A. 8-1602, a driver involved in a crash that injures someone, causes great bodily harm or death, or damages an attended vehicle or other property must immediately stop at the scene, or as close to it as possible, then return and stay until they have met the duties in K.S.A. 8-1604.¹

Those duties are concrete. You give your name, address, and the registration number of your vehicle, and on request you show your driver's license and name the company that insures you.² You also render reasonable assistance to anyone hurt, which includes arranging to get an injured person to a doctor or hospital.² If the people involved are not present or are not in a condition to take that information, because they were knocked unconscious or already carried off by ambulance, you have to report the crash to police by the quickest means available.²

The parked-car rule is often overlooked. If you hit an unattended vehicle, K.S.A. 8-1605 requires you to find the owner or leave a written note with your name, address, and registration number in a conspicuous place, then notify police. Skipping the note is itself a misdemeanor.³ Leaving your information on a windshield is a legal duty, not a courtesy.

What a hit-and-run driver is charged with in Kansas

K.S.A. 8-1602 grades the crime by how much harm the crash caused:

Total property damage under $1,000 is a misdemeanor.¹
Injury to any person, or property damage of $1,000 or more, is a class A person misdemeanor. That carries up to one year in county jail⁴ and a fine of as much as $2,500.⁵
Great bodily harm to a person is a severity level 8 person felony.¹
A death is a severity level 6 person felony. It climbs to level 4 if the driver knew or should have known the crash injured or killed someone, and to level 3 if more than one person died.¹

A conviction can also cost the driver their license, because the state can revoke the driving privileges of anyone convicted under this section.¹ Leaving is a separate offense from causing the crash. A driver who was not at fault for the collision can still be prosecuted for running.

The first hours after the other driver runs

Call the police and let them document the scene. The crash report is the backbone of every claim you will file, and you can order your Kansas crash report once it is available. Write down anything you caught about the other car: a partial plate, its color and make, and the direction it fled. Photograph your vehicle, the debris, and the road. Get the names and phone numbers of anyone who saw it happen. In a hit-and-run, an independent witness can decide whether your claim is paid at all under Kansas insurance law, as the next section explains.

How you get paid when the driver is gone

Kansas is a no-fault state, so your first source of money is your own policy. Personal injury protection (PIP) is mandatory under the Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act, and it pays your medical bills and lost income no matter who caused the crash and whether the other driver is ever found.⁶ The minimum PIP benefits are $4,500 for medical expense, another $4,500 for rehabilitation, up to $900 a month for a year in disability or lost wages, a $25-a-day essential services benefit for up to 365 days, and $2,000 for funeral costs.⁶ File with your own insurer promptly.

After PIP, the tool built for hit-and-run is uninsured motorist (UM) coverage. Kansas treats a driver who flees as an uninsured motorist, and every auto liability policy in the state has to include UM coverage matching your bodily-injury liability limits.⁷

Here is the part that trips people up. Insurers once required physical contact with the other vehicle before they would pay a hit-and-run UM claim. The Kansas Supreme Court threw that rule out in Simpson v. Farmers Ins. Co., holding the physical-contact requirement void as against public policy.⁸ A phantom vehicle that forced you off the road without ever touching your car can still support a UM claim. The catch written into K.S.A. 40-284 is that in a no-contact case, the insurer can demand reliable, competent evidence of the facts from a disinterested witness, meaning someone who is not making a claim on your policy.⁷ That is why the bystander's phone number you collected at the scene matters so much.

Suing the driver, if they are found

To recover for pain and suffering, whether from your UM coverage or from the at-fault driver once police identify them, you have to clear the Kansas tort threshold. You need at least $2,000 in reasonable medical treatment, or an injury on the statutory serious-injury list: a fracture of a weight-bearing bone, permanent injury, disfigurement, loss of a body part, or death (K.S.A. 40-3117).⁹ If the driver is caught and insured, Kansas requires only 25/50/25 in liability coverage, which is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for injuries and $25,000 for property damage.¹⁰ Thin limits like those are a common reason UM coverage still ends up carrying the claim.

Your vehicle damage

If your car took the damage, collision coverage or the property-damage portion of your uninsured motorist coverage pays to repair it. A car that is fixed correctly can still be worth less on resale afterward, and Kansas recognizes a separate diminished value claim for that lost market value.

Deadlines you cannot miss

Kansas gives you two years to file a personal injury lawsuit and two years for property damage, both measured from the date of the crash (K.S.A. 60-513).¹¹ That clock runs even while the driver is still unknown, so do not wait for an arrest to open your UM claim or to get advice. If you want help, you can find a Kansas attorney through our legal directory.

This article is general information about Kansas law, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Sources

Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 8-1602 (accident involving death or personal injury; duties; penalties). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch08/008_016_0002.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 8-1604 (duty to give information and render aid). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch08/008_016_0004.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 8-1605 (duty upon striking unattended vehicle). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch08/008_016_0005.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 21-6602 (misdemeanor classes; term of confinement). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch21/021_066_0002.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 21-6611 (fines; maximum for class A misdemeanor). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch21/021_066_0011.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 40-3103 (Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act; personal injury protection benefits). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0003.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 40-284 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_002_0084.html
Simpson v. Farmers Ins. Co., 225 Kan. 508, 592 P.2d 445 (1979) (physical-contact requirement in hit-and-run UM clause void). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1410582/simpson-v-farmers-ins-co/
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 40-3117 (tort threshold for noneconomic damages). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0017.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 40-3107 (required motor vehicle liability insurance limits). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0007.html
Kansas Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 60-513 (two-year limitation for injury and property damage). https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch60/060_005_0013.html

Hit-and-Run Laws & What to Do in Kansas