What Happens If You Hit a Parked Car and Drive Away in Massachusetts?

The fine written into the Massachusetts leaving-the-scene provision starts at twenty dollars, which is the least important number in the statute. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 24(2)(a) reaches a driver who goes away after knowingly colliding with or otherwise causing injury to any other vehicle or property without stopping and making known his name, his residence and the register number of his motor vehicle. On conviction, the license consequence follows.

Two different subsections, two different worlds

Subsection (2)(a) is the property side. It covers another vehicle or property, which is what reaches a parked car, a fence or a mailbox.

Subsection (2)(a1/2) is the injury side, and it is a different statute in practical terms. Paragraph (1) covers going away after knowingly colliding with or causing injury to a person where no one dies, and sets imprisonment of not less than six months nor more than two years together with a fine of $500 to $1,000. Paragraph (2) covers injuries resulting in death, and it carries an additional element: that the driver went away to avoid prosecution or evade apprehension.

Treating those as one offense, which most summaries do, blurs the line the statute actually draws.

What the statute asks a driver to do

Three things: stop, and make known your name, your residence, and the register number of your motor vehicle. A note left on a windshield is not the standard section 24 sets, and it does not appear in the text.

The license, not the fine

The $20 minimum reads as absurdly small on its own, and left there it would misdescribe the statute badly. The provision that matters is the reporting requirement: the court reports the conviction to the registrar, who shall, unless the court or magistrate recommends otherwise, revoke immediately the license or right to operate.

Reinstatement eligibility varies by which offense was involved. Those specific periods are not stated on this page because they should be confirmed against the current text and the court’s own order rather than repeated from a summary.

One more thing the range does not mean

The $20 to $200 sentence in (2)(a) also covers reckless and negligent operation. It is not a penalty range unique to leaving the scene, and presenting it that way would overstate what the subsection says.