{"id":503,"date":"2012-07-27T01:24:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T01:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=503"},"modified":"2023-05-24T20:38:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T20:38:38","slug":"leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=503","title":{"rendered":"Leaving the Scene of an Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>CR35-051.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS35-051.htm\">Leaving the Scene of an Accident<\/a>, 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(a) (05\/24\/23)<\/li>\n<li>CR35-056. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS35-056.htm\">Leaving the Scene of an Accident<\/a> (Serious Bodily Injury), 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(b) (05\/24\/23)<\/li>\n<li>CR35-061. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS35-061.htm\">Leaving the Scene of an Accident<\/a> (Death Resulting), 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(c) (05\/24\/23)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Reporter&#8217;s Note<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statute requires both knowledge of an accident and knowledge of resultant injury to either the person or property of another.\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Sidway<\/span>, 139 Vt. 480, 484, 486 (1981). The level of knowledge required for each, however, is different. While <em>actual<\/em> knowledge of the <em>accident<\/em> is required, <em>constructive<\/em> knowledge of the <em>resultant injury <\/em>is sufficient to impose liability. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Id<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Constructive knowledge entails \u201cwhat an objective examination of the facts would reveal to a reasonable person.\u201d <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Keiser<\/span>, 174 Vt. 87, 93 (2002). Thus, a defendant could be imputed with knowledge that a \u201creasonable person would have gathered from the circumstances of the accident or impact, i.e., what a reasonable evaluation of the circumstances would reveal.\u201d <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Id<\/span>. (citing <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sidway<\/span>, 139 Vt. at 485\u201386). Therefore, the trial\u2019s court instruction on constructive knowledge in <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Keiser<\/span>, which allowed the jury to impute to the defendant knowledge that a reasonable investigation of the circumstances of the accident would reveal, was consistent with <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sidway<\/span>, and was not reversible error. Limiting jurors to considering only the impact itself, the Court explained, would mean that jurors could consider \u201conly that information an individual who was in an accident, but failed to stop, would have available.\u201d <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Id<\/span>. at 94. This would discourage individuals from stopping to investigate an impact, because they \u201cmight acquire actual knowledge placing them in a poorer position than the defendant who kept going.\u201d <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Id<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The model instructions include two alternative bracketed options to explain the knowledge element. In a given case with circumstances that do not seem to fit either option, counsel should suggest additional alternative language to the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CR35-051.\u00a0 Leaving the Scene of an Accident, 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(a) (05\/24\/23) CR35-056. Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Serious Bodily Injury), 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(b) (05\/24\/23) CR35-061. Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Death Resulting), 23 V.S.A. \u00a7 1128(c) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=503\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":490,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-503","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503\/revisions\/1708"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}