When you see the driver who hit you speed away, you might believe that you have no way of tracking them down and holding them accountable to compensate you for your injuries and losses. But experienced hit-and-run accident attorneys have multiple ways that they can try to track down your hit-and-driver at fault for the crash.
Law Enforcement Investigation
First, your legal team may work with law enforcement to try to track down the hit-and-run driver. Failing to stop or immediately return to the scene of a motor vehicle crash constitutes a crime under Texas law, so police have an interest in also trying to find a hit-and-run driver, especially if the accident resulted in you or another victim suffering serious or even fatal injuries. Suppose law enforcement can identify and track down the hit-and-run driver who injured you. In that case, the police can pass this information to your legal team, who can then pursue a claim for compensation against that driver.
Read more: What Evidence Is Needed to Prove a Hit-and-Run?
Eyewitnesses
In addition to the investigative efforts of law enforcement, your legal team can also conduct its own investigation to try to identify and track down a hit-and-run driver. Your legal team may start its investigation by interviewing eyewitnesses to the crash. People who witnessed the accident may provide details that can help your legal team track down the hit-and-run driver. They may have details that you’d otherwise miss. In rare cases, you and your legal team may even be lucky to find an eyewitness who knows and can identify the hit-and-run driver.
Surveillance Footage
In addition to eyewitness testimony, your legal team may also rely on surveillance footage to provide important details that can help track down the driver. This includes a description of the vehicle or of the driver themselves, the vehicle’s license plate number, the direction the driver traveled in, or the location the driver traveled to after the crash. These details can help your legal team and their investigations begin to track down the vehicle that hit you and its driver.
Read more: How To Request Surveillance Footage of Your Accident
DMV Records
Your legal team may also rely on DMV records to help track drown the hit-and-run driver that collided with you. If you or witnesses can provide details about the vehicle that hit you, including a complete or even partial license plate number, or a description of the vehicle’s make, model, model year, and/or color, your legal team can use that information to cross-reference against DMV records.
Even only a few details like a partial plate number and a vehicle make and model can allow your legal team to identify the vehicle that hit you conclusively. DMV records will allow your legal team to track down the vehicle’s registered owner, who likely will either be the hit-and-run driver or who can identify the driver.
Social Media
Finally, social media can serve as an important tool for your legal team in tracking down a hit-and-run driver. Through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, your legal team can sometimes track down a hit-and-run driver with only scraps of information to start with. For example, some hit-and-run drivers have been identified starting only with debris that broke off their vehicle in the crash, with people on social media correctly identifying the make, model, and year of the vehicle the debris came from.
Social media can also allow your legal team and law enforcement to put the public on the lookout for the vehicle that hit you. They may ask individuals if they can identify the vehicle or driver through photos or surveillance footage, or alert local auto body shops to look out for vehicles coming in for repairs consistent with the damage they would have received in the crash with you.
Read more: Why Posting on Social Media After an Accident Can Hurt Your Case
Contact Us If You Were Involved in a Hit-and-Run Accident
When you have been the victim of a hit-and-run accident, don’t assume that you have no options for pursuing financial recovery for the injuries and losses that you have suffered. Contact the Houston car accident lawyers of Gibson Hill Personal Injury for a free, no-obligation consultation. You will speak with our personal injury attorneys about the next steps you have available to you in your case. Give us a call at 713-659-4000 or fill out the contact form on our website today.
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