Short answer. Yes, and leaving carries a direct consequence. The article on imprudence provides that the penalty next higher in degree is imposed on an offender who fails to lend on the spot such help as may be in his hands to give. Driving away raises the penalty.
What the law says
The penalty next higher in degree to those provided for in this article shall be imposed upon the offender who fails to lend on the spot to the injured parties such help as may be in his hands to give.
Revised Penal Code, Article 365 — Imprudence And Negligence. Read the full provision →
The duty is written into the penalty clause
The last sentence of Art. 365 is easy to miss and hard to overstate: the penalty next higher in degree to those provided for in this article shall be imposed upon the offender who fails to lend on the spot to the injured parties such help as may be in his hands to give. It does not create a separate offence. It raises the penalty for the imprudence itself by a whole degree. So the decision made in the minute after a collision can matter as much to the outcome as the driving that caused it, which is not what most people assume when they panic and go.
What counts as help, and what the words limit
The clause is measured, not absolute. What is required is help as may be in his hands to give, so nobody is expected to do what he cannot. Stopping, calling for assistance, getting the injured person to where treatment is available, or staying until others take over are the ordinary content of it. The other limit is on the spot: help given at the scene, when it is needed, not an offer of assistance made later through somebody else. Returning after leaving does not undo the failure, though what a person did and when will still be part of the record.
Fear, safety and the honest reason for leaving
Drivers leave for reasons that are not always flight. Some fear a crowd, some are alone at night, some are themselves injured or in shock. None of that is written into the clause, so it is not a defence the article itself supplies; but the circumstances of the departure are facts, and facts are what a court works from. A person in that position helps himself by doing at once what he safely can — calling for help as he goes, reporting immediately, presenting himself rather than waiting to be found — and by being able to show he did.
What to preserve if this has already happened
The evidence that bears on this clause is mostly about timing, and it disappears fast. Call logs, messages, dashcam and nearby camera footage, the account of anyone who was with you, and any record of your own injuries or of the state of the scene all speak to what you did and what was possible. Separate transport legislation also governs stopping and reporting after a collision, so more than one set of consequences can be in play. Take everything to counsel before giving a narrative account to anybody else.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 365 — Imprudence And Negligence
- Revised Penal Code, Article 100 — Criminal Liability Means Civil Liability