What is a hit-and-run offence?

What is a hit-and-run offence?

"I've heard that the law now makes it an offence to be a hit-and-run driver. What is it?"

The VIA SICURA road safety programme is introducing changes to the Road Traffic Act (LCR), the first of which came into force on January 1 this year. These measures provide for stiffer penalties for extremely serious breaches of the rules of the road by what might be described as "reckless driving".

The LCR provides for three types of offence: a slight offence, a moderately serious offence and a serious offence. For example, exceeding the speed limit by between 16 and 20 kph in a locality is a minor offence that will result in a warning or the withdrawal of a licence for at least 1 month if the driver has already had a licence withdrawn or been subject to another administrative measure in the previous two years. If the same offence is committed on a motorway, the only penalty will be a fine. The classification of an offence depends on the number of kilometres/hour exceeded, the limit set for the zone and the driver's past record.

It is important to remember that in the event of a serious infringement of the LCR, two procedures are opened cumulatively. The first, an administrative procedure, results in the issuing of a warning or the withdrawal of a driving licence by the motor vehicle department. The second is a criminal procedure conducted by the police or a magistrate, which results in a fine, a financial penalty or even a custodial sentence.

With the entry into force of the new legal provisions, people who intentionally violate the basic rules of the road and who are willing to run a high risk of accident for others, in particular by taking part in speed races, are exposed to aggravated administrative and criminal penalties.

For such drivers, the penalty will be, from an administrative point of view, the withdrawal of the licence for a period of at least two years, or even its definitive withdrawal for a repeat offender, and, from a criminal point of view, the imposition of a custodial sentence of between one and four years (art. 90 al. 3 LCR). It should be noted that these penalties will always be imposed when the maximum authorised speed is exceeded by at least 50 km/h in localities and by at least 80 km/h in zones where the limit is set at more than 80 km/h. This is why the Attorney General of the Canton of Geneva has decided to increase the scale of penalties for speeding offences approaching the above-mentioned limits.