Hit and run (vehicular)
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Hit-and-run is the crime of colliding with a person, their personal property (including their motor vehicle), or a fixture, and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards. In many jurisdictions there may be an additional obligation to exchange information about one's financial responsibility (including any applicable insurance) or to summon emergency services if they are needed.
Hit-and-run has severe legal consequences including the suspension or cancelling of one's driver's license, as well as imprisonment.
Hit-and-run laws arose from the difficulties that early car accident victims faced in identifying perpetrators so that they could be brought to justice. Apart from the obvious ability of an automobile to flee the scene quickly (if still driveable), drivers often wore driving goggles, vehicles at the time did not have license plates, and roads were unpaved and thus quite dusty.Edward C. Fisher, Vehicle Traffic Law (Evanston, IL: Traffic Institute, Northwestern University, 1961): 289.
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