The mitigating circumstance of making good the damage does not apply in the case of flight

The duty to stop after an accident is not linked to the need to assist injured persons, but to the need to allow those responsible to be identified, to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident and to safeguard the safety of traffic.

That is the principle of law stated by the Fourth Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation. Having noted that the offence of flight is an omission offence of danger, the bench recalls that intent must cover failure to comply with the duty to stop following an accident which is concretely capable of causing harm to persons. It follows that intent may be found where those circumstances unequivocally indicate awareness of having caused an accident capable of harming persons. As regards the application of Article 131-bis of the Criminal Code, the Court observes that there is no such thing as a slight or serious offence in the abstract, because it is the concrete manifestation of the offence that marks its disvalue. As regards the failure to apply the circumstance under Article 62, no. 6, of the Criminal Code, even though the insurer of the defendant’s vehicle had compensated the damage caused by the road accident, the Court recalls that the case law has already held that the mitigating circumstance of making good the damage does not apply to the offence of failing to provide the assistance required after an accident, that being an offence of danger, in which the interest protected is not the integrity of the person but social solidarity. The same principle also applies — and all the more so — to the offence of flight, for which it is sufficient that the accident has caused harm to persons, regardless of any need for assistance. The duty to stop is not linked to the need to provide assistance but — as appears from paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 189 of the Highway Code — to the need to allow those responsible to be identified, to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident and to safeguard the safety of traffic. The offence under Article 189, paragraph 6, of the Highway Code is therefore not directed at protecting the integrity of the person, but at requirements of public order and the safety of traffic which flight endangers.