If you get in an accident in Illinois, here's the time when it's legal to leave the scene.

After you get into an accident and everyone is okay, then the next step is to call the police to file a report. That means staying at the location until everything is taken care of. There's one exception to the rule about leaving the scene. That's if you don't feel safe.

According to mystateline.com,

"Rockford Police say many accidents involving a vehicle or pedestrian cause enough damage that it must be reported, but if a driver does not feel safe at the crash location, they can drive to another area, such as a local police station, to report the accident."

There's an important side note. You can't just blow it off.

“You have 24 hours to report a crash that’s non-bodily injury or death, but you’re going to want to report anything [that causes over] $1,500 as soon as possible. Once you get the crash report, you have 10 days to submit the form to [the Illinois Department of Transportation] and they have to track that, if it’s over $1,500 or [someone was] injured [in the] crash. Leaving the scene of a crash that causes injury, without reporting it, could result in jail time."

Keep that in mind if you ever get into a fender bender.


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