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Hit and run in Germany: penalties and what counts now

Author
Rechtsanwältin Virginia Elisabeth von Burgsdorff
Published
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8 minute read
8 minute read

Anyone who leaves the scene of a road accident before it has been possible to establish their identity, their vehicle and the nature of their involvement commits a criminal offence. The penalty range for unerlaubtes Entfernen vom Unfallort (leaving the scene of an accident without permission) goes up to three years' imprisonment or a fine (§ 142 Abs. 1 StGB). Alongside the penalty, the Fahrerlaubnis (the legal permission to drive) is at stake. There is, however, a statutory way of reducing the consequences: where a person caused the accident outside moving traffic, where the accident resulted exclusively in property damage that is not significant, and where within 24 hours that person voluntarily makes it possible for the findings to be made after the event, the court reduces the penalty or may dispense with punishment (§ 142 Abs. 4 StGB).

01

What penalty does leaving the scene carry?

The law names a range, not a result. § 142 Abs. 1 StGB provides for imprisonment of up to three years or a fine. A fine is imposed in Tagessätze (daily units), a minimum of five and a maximum of 360, and the amount of a single daily unit is set by the court according to the personal and financial circumstances, taking as a rule the average net income of one day (§ 40 Abs. 1 und 2 StGB).

What comes of that in an individual case depends on the course of events, on the damage and on the person's history. Anyone who names a figure to you in advance is guessing.

02

When is there a case of leaving the scene at all?

What is punishable is leaving before one of two requirements has been met. Either you have, in favour of the other persons involved in the accident and of those who suffered loss, made it possible through your presence and through stating that you were involved for your identity, your vehicle and the nature of your involvement to be established (§ 142 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 StGB). Or you have waited for a period that is reasonable in the circumstances without anyone being prepared to make those findings (§ 142 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 StGB).

A person involved in the accident is anyone whose conduct, in the circumstances, may have contributed to causing it (§ 142 Abs. 5 StGB). In parallel, § 34 Abs. 1 StVO sets out the duties after a road accident: stop immediately, make the traffic safe, satisfy yourself as to the consequences of the accident, help anyone injured, state your own involvement and, on request, give your name and address. Traces of the accident may not be removed before the necessary findings have been made (§ 34 Abs. 3 StVO).

A note under the windscreen wiper does not satisfy § 142 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 StGB. The provision requires your presence. Under § 34 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 Buchstabe b StVO, leaving your name and address only comes into consideration after you have waited for a period that is reasonable in the circumstances.

03

The 24 hours under § 142 Abs. 4 StGB

This is the provision that matters for anyone who has driven on after scraping a parked car. Three requirements have to come together: the accident happened outside moving traffic, it resulted exclusively in property damage that is not significant, and the person involved voluntarily makes it possible, within 24 hours of the accident, for the findings to be made after the event. The court then reduces the penalty under § 49 Abs. 1 StGB or may dispense with punishment (§ 142 Abs. 4 StGB).

What making the findings possible after the event looks like is set out in § 142 Abs. 3 StGB: you inform the person entitled or a nearby police station that you were involved in the accident, you state your address, where you are staying, the registration number and the location of the vehicle, and you keep the vehicle available for a reasonable period for findings to be made without delay. Anyone who deliberately frustrates the findings by their conduct cannot rely on this (§ 142 Abs. 3 Satz 2 StGB).

On the limit of property damage that is not significant: the law names no amount. Which sum still counts as not significant in an individual case is decided by the courts, and they do not do so uniformly. Any figure you come across online as a fixed limit is not a figure from the statute.

04

Why a Selbstanzeige at the police station is not a Selbstanzeige

The word is misleading. For § 142 StGB the Criminal Code knows no Selbstanzeige (a voluntary self-report to the authorities correcting earlier statements) that leads to exemption from punishment. What § 142 Abs. 3 und 4 StGB provides for is making the findings possible after the event, and that leads to a reduction of the penalty or to punishment being dispensed with only under the narrow requirements of subsection 4.

Anyone who instead goes to the police and describes what happened is making a statement. That statement goes into the case file. You do not have to make a statement on the matter (§ 136 Abs. 1 Satz 2 StPO), and you should clarify the scope of any communication before you make it. The report required by § 142 Abs. 3 StGB and a confession as to how the accident happened are two different things.

05

What happens to the Fahrerlaubnis

Two provisions have to be kept apart. First the terms: the Führerschein is the document, the Fahrerlaubnis is the entitlement. What is withdrawn is the Fahrerlaubnis; the Führerschein is merely taken in.

While proceedings are pending, the judge may provisionally withdraw the Fahrerlaubnis where there are strong grounds for believing that it will be withdrawn (§ 111a Abs. 1 Satz 1 StPO). At the end, the court withdraws the Fahrerlaubnis where it follows from the offence that the convicted person is unfit to drive motor vehicles (§ 69 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StGB). The Fahrerlaubnis lapses when the judgment becomes final (§ 69 Abs. 3 Satz 1 StGB), and at the same time the court sets a Sperre (a period during which no new Fahrerlaubnis may be granted) of six months to five years (§ 69a Abs. 1 Satz 1 StGB).

For leaving the scene of an accident, the law contains a standard example, and its wording is decisive: the offender is as a rule to be regarded as unfit where they know or can know that in the accident a person was killed or not insignificantly injured, or that significant damage was caused to property belonging to another (§ 69 Abs. 2 Nr. 3 StGB). Where a parked car has been scraped and no one has been injured, that requirement is not met as a matter of course. Here too the law names no amount for significant damage.

If the Fahrerlaubnis is retained, a Fahrverbot (a ban on driving) of one month to six months comes into consideration (§ 44 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StGB).

06

How the proceedings continue

What arrives first may be post: an Anhörungsbogen (a written form inviting you to comment on the allegation) or a Vorladung (a summons to attend). After that, in the case of a Vergehen, the less serious of the two categories of criminal offence in German law, the Staatsanwaltschaft (the public prosecution office) may apply for a Strafbefehl to be issued, by which the legal consequences are set in writing without a main hearing (§ 407 Abs. 1 StPO). By Strafbefehl (a written court order imposing a penalty without a main hearing) a fine and a Fahrverbot may be imposed, among other things, as may withdrawal of the Fahrerlaubnis where the Sperre is not more than two years (§ 407 Abs. 2 Satz 1 Nr. 1 und 2 StPO).

A Strafbefehl is not a proposal. An objection may be lodged against it within two weeks of service (§ 410 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StPO). If no objection is lodged in time, it has the same effect as a final judgment (§ 410 Abs. 3 StPO). Those two weeks are easily overlooked.

If the period has expired, that does not mean everything is settled. Where someone was prevented, through no fault of their own, from observing a time limit, Wiedereinsetzung in den vorigen Stand (restoration of the position that existed before the time limit was missed) is to be granted on application (§ 44 Satz 1 StPO). This route is itself subject to a time limit: the application is to be made within one week of the obstacle ceasing to exist, to the court before which the time limit would have had to be observed, and within that same period the omitted act, here the objection, is to be made good (§ 45 Abs. 1 und 2 StPO). The facts relied on in support of the application must be substantiated (§ 45 Abs. 2 Satz 1 StPO). Whether the requirements are met is for the court to decide; no assurance can be given about that. Anyone who has missed a time limit should therefore have it checked at once whether this route is open, rather than treating the matter as closed.

Frequently asked questions about leaving the scene of an accident

From what level of damage is leaving the scene punishable?

§ 142 Abs. 1 StGB names no damage threshold. Even a small scratch can be an accident within the meaning of the provision. The extent of the damage plays a role elsewhere, namely under § 142 Abs. 4 StGB and under § 69 Abs. 2 Nr. 3 StGB.

The law requires a period that is reasonable in the circumstances (§ 142 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 StGB). No number of minutes appears anywhere. How long is reasonable depends on the time of day, the location and the amount of damage. It makes sense to document the waiting time.

Someone who did not notice the accident does not leave intentionally. The Federal Constitutional Court has held that § 142 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 StGB may not be applied to persons who leave the scene without knowing of the accident, because that would breach the prohibition of analogy in criminal law (decision of 19 March 2007, 2 BvR 2273/06). What follows from that for your case depends on what the file shows about whether the accident was recognisable.

No, the law provides for no automatic consequence. Withdrawal requires that unfitness follows from the offence (§ 69 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StGB). The standard example in § 69 Abs. 2 Nr. 3 StGB is tied to personal injury or significant damage to another's property, and to what the driver knew or could have known.

This information is general in nature and does not replace advice on an individual case. It reflects the statutory texts as checked on 10 August 2026.

07

What happens next

What is possible in proceedings for leaving the scene of an accident is decided by the case file and by the first few days. You will find an overview of road traffic proceedings on our page on traffic criminal law. Two concluded cases from this area are described under Acquittal of the charge of hit and run and Unerlaubtes Entfernen vom Unfallort, the second of these in German. They show how proceedings can run. No conclusion about the outcome of any other proceedings can be drawn from them.

If you would like to discuss your case, you can reach the office by telephone or by email.

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Provisions referred to

The provisions mentioned in this article, each with a link to the official German text.

Case law referred to