Colorado § 42-4-1603 - Duty to give notice, information, and aid.

§ 42-4-1603. Duty to give notice, information, and aid.

(1) The driver of any vehicle involved in a crash resulting in injury to, serious bodily injury to, or death of any person or damage to any vehicle which is driven or attended by any person shall give the driver's name, the driver's address, and the registration number of the vehicle the driver is driving and shall upon request exhibit their driver's license to the person struck or the driver or occupant of or person attending any vehicle collided with and where practical shall render to any person injured in such crash reasonable assistance, including the carrying, or the making of arrangements for the carrying, of such person to a physician, surgeon, or hospital for medical or surgical treatment if it is apparent that such treatment is necessary or if the carrying is requested by the injured person.

(2) In the event that none of the persons specified are in condition to receive the information to which they otherwise would be entitled under subsection (1) of this section and no police officer is present, the driver of any vehicle involved in such crash, after fulfilling all other requirements of subsection (1) of this section, insofar as possible on the driver's part to be performed, shall immediately report such crash to the nearest office of a duly authorized police authority as required in section 42-4-1606 and submit thereto the information specified in subsection (1) of this section.

Source: L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2400, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2026: Entire section amended, (HB 26-1237), ch. 117, p. 483, § 61, effective August 12.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 42-4-1403 as it existed prior to 1994, and the former § 42-4-1603 was relocated to § 42-4-1803.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since § 42-4-1603 is similar to § 42-4-1403 as it existed prior to the 1994 amending of title 42 as enacted by SB 94-1, relevant cases construing that provision have been included with the annotations to this section.

Same conduct covered by this section and § 42-4-1401. Sentencing a defendant under § 42-4-1401 unconstitutionally denies him equal protection, because that section and this section set different penalties for the same conduct. People v. Mumaugh, 644 P.2d 299 (Colo. 1982) (decided prior to 1983 repeal of subsection (3)).

The distinction, if any, between "directly involved in an accident" (§ 42-4-1401) and "involved in an accident" (this section) is one without a sufficiently pragmatic difference to permit an intelligent and uniform application of the law. People v. Mumaugh, 644 P.2d 299 (Colo. 1982) (decided prior to 1983 repeal of subsection (3)).

This section and § 42-4-1601 require a driver of a vehicle involved in an accident to identify himself or herself as the driver. Unless the fact is reasonably apparent from the circumstances, the driver has an affirmative duty to identify that he or she was the one driving the motor vehicle. People v. Hernandez, 250 P.3d 568 (Colo. 2010).

Sufficient evidence to support defendant's conviction for leaving the scene of an accident. Sufficient evidence was presented to allow the jury to conclude that defendant (1) was the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident; (2) did not affirmatively identify himself as the driver before leaving the scene of the accident; (3) did not render reasonable assistance to his passengers; and (4) did not report the accident to the police before law enforcement arrived. People v. Medrano-Bustamante, 2013 COA 139, 412 P.3d 581, aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds sub nom. Reyna-Abarca v. People, 2017 CO 15, 390 P.3d 816.

Applied in Lumbardy v. People, 625 P.2d 1026 (Colo. 1981); Stewart v. United States, 716 F.2d 755 (10th Cir. 1982).