What Are the Penalties for Hit and Run in South Carolina?

Hit and run penalties in South Carolina range from a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail for property damage or minor injury, to a felony carrying up to 25 years in prison and a $25,000 fine when someone dies. The charge depends almost entirely on what the crash caused, and in many cases the punishment for fleeing is harsher than what the driver would have faced for the collision itself.

Criminal Penalties by Severity of the Crash

South Carolina’s leaving-the-scene statutes build a tiered system. Each tier has its own statute, its own penalty range, and its own classification as misdemeanor or felony. One widespread misconception worth clearing up: a hit and run causing a non-serious injury is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Felony exposure begins only when the victim suffers great bodily injury or dies.

Property Damage to an Attended Vehicle

Leaving the scene after striking an occupied vehicle, with no injury, is a misdemeanor under S.C. Code Ann. 56-5-1220. A conviction carries up to one year in jail, a fine between $100 and $5,000, or both.¹

Injury Without Great Bodily Harm

When the crash hurts someone but the injury does not meet the legal threshold for great bodily injury, fleeing is still a misdemeanor. The sentence is a mandatory minimum of 30 days and up to one year in jail, a fine between $100 and $5,000, or both.²

Great Bodily Injury

The charge becomes a felony when the victim suffers great bodily injury, defined under South Carolina law as an injury creating a substantial risk of death, serious permanent disfigurement, or prolonged loss of function of a body part or organ. Conviction carries 30 days to 10 years in prison and a fine between $5,000 and $10,000.²

Death

Fleeing a fatal crash is the most serious hit and run offense in the state. The sentence runs from a mandatory minimum of one year up to 25 years in prison, with fines between $10,000 and $25,000. Prosecutors treat these cases aggressively because fleeing can keep emergency responders from reaching the victim in time.²

What Triggers the Charge

The duties you owe after a crash determine whether you’ve committed a hit and run. S.C. Code Ann. 56-5-1210 requires any driver involved in a crash causing injury or death to stop immediately, return to the scene, and remain there until they’ve exchanged information and rendered aid. A short trip to notify authorities is allowed, but you have to come back.²

Under S.C. Code Ann. 56-5-1230, every driver in a crash that causes injury, death, or damage to an occupied vehicle must give their name, address, and vehicle registration number to the other driver or any injured person, and must show their license if asked. If someone is hurt, reasonable assistance is required, including arranging transportation to a hospital when treatment appears necessary.³

If the vehicle you hit is unattended, S.C. Code Ann. 56-5-1240 lets you satisfy your duty by finding the owner and providing your information, or by leaving a written note with your name, address, and a description of what happened in a visible spot on the vehicle.⁴

Fail any of these duties, and the matching statute’s penalty tier kicks in.

License and Driving Consequences

A hit and run conviction reaches well beyond the courtroom. Courts routinely impose license suspension as part of sentencing, and the South Carolina DMV may take its own administrative action. Getting your license back after a suspension or revocation requires paying reinstatement fees and satisfying any conditions set by the court or the DMV.⁵

SR-22 Insurance Filing

After a hit and run conviction, South Carolina generally requires you to file an SR-22 certificate of financial responsibility. The SR-22 is a form your insurer submits to the DMV proving you carry at least the state’s minimum coverage. The filing period in South Carolina is typically three years, and any lapse during that stretch can trigger another suspension and reset the clock. SR-22 status also marks you as a high-risk driver, which pushes premiums sharply higher.

Commercial Driver’s License Holders

A hit and run is treated as a major disqualifying offense under federal CDL regulations. A first conviction brings a one-year CDL disqualification whether or not you were in a commercial vehicle at the time. If you were hauling hazardous materials, the disqualification is three years. A second major offense means lifetime disqualification. A state may allow reinstatement after 10 years if the driver completes an approved rehabilitation program, but a later conviction after reinstatement makes the lifetime bar permanent.⁶

Out-of-State Drivers

South Carolina joined the Driver License Compact in 1987. Under the compact’s “one driver, one license, one record” framework, a hit and run conviction in South Carolina gets reported to your home state. The home state then treats the offense as if it had happened there and applies its own penalties, which can include additional suspension or fines.⁷

Civil Liability on Top of Criminal Charges

A criminal case is only one side of the exposure. Victims can also sue in civil court for medical bills, rehabilitation, lost income, property damage, and pain and suffering. The civil burden of proof is lower: a victim only has to show it is more likely than not that you caused their losses.

South Carolina uses modified comparative negligence. A victim recovers as long as their share of fault does not exceed the defendant’s. At 50% fault or less, the victim can still recover, with the award reduced by their share. At 51% or more, recovery is barred. In most hit and run cases, the fleeing driver carries all or nearly all of the fault.⁸

Punitive Damages

When conduct goes past ordinary negligence, South Carolina courts can add punitive damages. The statute sets a tiered cap:

Standard cap: punitive damages cannot exceed the greater of three times the compensatory award or $500,000.
Elevated cap: if the conduct was motivated by unreasonable financial gain with knowledge of the danger, or could support a felony conviction, the cap rises to the greater of four times compensatory damages or $2 million.
No cap: there is no limit when the driver intended to cause harm, has been convicted of a felony arising from the same conduct, or was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.

That third category matters for hit and run cases involving intoxicated drivers. The combination of fleeing and driving drunk removes the statutory ceiling entirely, which is how these cases produce the largest jury verdicts.⁹

Defenses to a Hit and Run Charge

Not every accusation holds up. Several defenses come up regularly in these cases:

Lack of knowledge. If you genuinely did not realize an accident happened, such as a minor contact in a parking lot where you felt no impact, this can defeat the charge. The prosecution must prove you knew or should have known about the collision.
Mistaken identity. Witnesses sometimes misread plates or misidentify vehicles, particularly in poor lighting. Dashcam footage, security video, and GPS data can place your vehicle somewhere else.
Medical emergency. A driver who left because they were in a genuine medical crisis may have a defense, though the circumstances have to be compelling.

If you’ve been falsely accused, file your own police report, preserve timestamped surveillance footage, pull toll records, and collect witness statements that establish where your vehicle actually was. Felony hit and run charges carry years in prison, and procedural errors in the investigation often matter as much as the underlying facts; a criminal defense attorney with experience in these cases can evaluate the evidence, challenge weak identifications, and negotiate with prosecutors when the facts allow.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-1220 – Duties of Driver Involved in Accident Resulting in Damage to Attended Vehicles
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-1210 – Duties of Drivers Involved in Accident Resulting in Death or Personal Injury
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 56 Chapter 5 – Section 56-5-1230
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 56 Chapter 5 – Section 56-5-1240
5
SCDMV. License Reinstatement
6
eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers
7
CSG National Center for Interstate Compacts. Driver License Compact
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 15-38-15 – Liability of Defendant Responsible for Less Than Fifty Per Cent of Total Fault
9
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 15-32-530 – Awards Not to Exceed Certain Limits