Hit and Run on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas: What to Do When the Driver Flees

Arya Firoozmand, Esq. — Founding Partner

Local Calabasas Injury Attorney · UCLA Law

Arya Firoozmand is the founding partner at L&F Brown. He grew up in Woodland Hills — minutes from Calabasas — graduated from El Camino Real High School and UCLA Law School, and has spent his career representing injured clients across the West Valley.

You were on Las Virgenes Road - one of the main north-south corridors through Calabasas - and the other driver hit your car and kept going. Maybe they ran a red light at the Las Virgenes/Mulholland intersection and bolted. Maybe it happened near Calabasas High School. Maybe they merged into you on the curve near the creek and were gone before you could even get their plate. Now you're sitting there with a damaged car, possible injuries, and no other driver to make a claim against.

Here's what you need to know about where you go from here.

Call LASD Immediately

Calabasas isn't in the City of Los Angeles, so LAPD doesn't respond here. Street-level crashes in Calabasas are handled by LASD Lost Hills Station. Call 911 now. Even if the driver is gone, a police report is essential. It documents that the crash happened, describes the other vehicle to the extent you can identify it, and establishes your status as the victim of a hit and run.

Without a report, uninsured motorist claims become significantly harder to process. Your own insurer needs documentation that this was a genuine hit-and-run accident, not an uncorroborated single-vehicle claim.

What to Document at the Scene

The other driver is gone, but evidence isn't. Do these things now:

• Photograph your vehicle damage from multiple angles
• Photograph the surrounding area - intersections, road markings, traffic signals, any debris
• Look for witnesses and get their contact information before they leave. Witnesses who saw the other car's make, model, or partial plate are critical
• Note exactly where you were on Las Virgenes Road - the cross street, landmarks, which direction each vehicle was traveling
• Look for nearby businesses, traffic cameras, or residential cameras that may have captured the incident

Traffic cameras on Las Virgenes Road don't keep footage indefinitely. If there's a camera at the intersection or nearby, that footage may be available for a brief window. Contact the relevant agency - the City of Calabasas or LA County - as soon as possible to preserve it.

Your Primary Source of Recovery: Uninsured Motorist Coverage

When the at-fault driver flees and cannot be identified, they are treated legally as an uninsured driver under California law. Your own auto insurance uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is the primary mechanism for recovering your losses.

If you carry UM coverage on your California policy - and it's required to be offered under state law, though you can reject it in writing - it covers your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering up to your policy's UM limits. The higher your UM limits, the more protection you have in a situation exactly like this one.

Check your declarations page right now. Know your UM limits. That number determines your practical ceiling on recovery when the other driver is never found.

How the UM Claim Process Works

Filing a UM claim is not the same as filing a regular third-party claim. You're filing against your own insurer, which is counterintuitive but accurate. Under California law, your insurer must process your UM claim in good faith, but they are also adversarial in the sense that they're evaluating and potentially disputing your claim to minimize their payout.

UM claims often require: a police report documenting the hit and run, medical records from West Hills Hospital or your treating physicians, documentation of lost wages, and in some cases an examination under oath (EUO) conducted by your insurer's representatives. Having an attorney manage the UM claim process is a significant advantage - your insurer is not simply going to pay your claim at face value.

If the hit-and-run driver is later identified, the claim shifts to a standard third-party claim against their insurer, and your UM coverage may no longer be the primary vehicle for recovery.

California's Hit-and-Run Requirement

California requires drivers involved in an accident to stop and exchange information. Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime - a misdemeanor if there are only property damages, a felony if there are injuries. LASD will take the hit-and-run report seriously. If the other driver is identified later through a witness tip, traffic camera, or vehicle description match, criminal charges may follow - and that record can be used in your civil claim.

To understand your full options after a Las Virgenes Road hit and run, talking with a Calabasas hit and run lawyer is the right move. They can manage the UM claim, help preserve evidence, and advise on whether pursuit of the other driver remains viable.

Our Calabasas personal injury attorneys handle hit-and-run cases on contingency. Free consultation - call to discuss your situation.