The Gladish Law Group has deposed numerous truck drivers who have caused accidents, but have failed to stop at the accident scene claiming that they did not know they were involved in the collision due to the size of their truck. Indiana Code section 9–26–1–1 requires a driver involved in an accident that results in the injury or death of another person to stop, remain at the scene, and provide his name, address, and vehicle registration information. It provides that the driver of a motor vehicle involved in an accident that results in the injury or death of a person or the entrapment of a person in a vehicle shall do the following:
(1) Immediately stop the driver’s motor vehicle at the scene of the accident or as close to the accident as possible in a manner that does not obstruct traffic more than is necessary.
(2) Immediately return to and remain at the scene of the accident until the driver does the following:
(A) Gives the driver’s name and address and the registration number of the motor vehicle the driver was driving.
(B) Upon request, exhibits the driver’s license of the driver to the following:
(i) The person struck.
(ii) The driver or occupant of or person attending each vehicle involved in the accident.
(C) Subject to section 1.5(a) of this chapter, determines the need for and renders reasonable assistance to each person injured or entrapped in the accident, including the removal of, or the making of arrangements for the removal of:
(i) each injured person from the scene of the accident to a physician or hospital for medical treatment; and (ii) each entrapped person from the vehicle in which the person is entrapped.
(3) Subject to section 1.5(b) of this chapter, immediately give notice of the accident by the quickest means of communication to one (1) of the following:
(A) The local police department, if the accident occurs within a municipality.
(B) The office of the county sheriff or the nearest state police post, if the accident occurs outside a municipality.
If the driver knowingly or intentionally fails to meet any of the requirements imposed by the statute, he commits a criminal offense. If the accident resulted in the death of a person, the offense was a Class C felony. The purpose of the statute is to provide prompt aid for persons who are injured or whose property is damaged and to sufficiently establish the identity of the parties so that they and police authorities may know with whom to deal in matters growing out of the accident. A driver’s knowledge of the fact that an accident with injury has occurred is a necessary element of the proof in a prosecution for failure to stop. Yet a driver need not have actual knowledge that an accident has resulted in an injury to be convicted under the statute. Where conditions were such that the driver should have known that an accident occurred or should have reasonably anticipated that the accident resulted in injury to a person, the requisite knowledge is present. When a driver prosecuted for failure to stop asserts that he did not know he was involved in an accident causing injury, that assertion is a defense that goes to the issue of whether he possessed the requisite mens rea, and the credibility of that defense is an issue for the factfinder. The trier of fact may infer a defendant’s knowledge from circumstantial evidence.