Clipping a wing mirror and leaving a note under a wiper feels like the honest thing to do. In Germany it is not enough, and the offence you have just committed is not a traffic matter — it is a crime under § 142 StGB, carrying a fine or up to three years, and it puts your licence at risk in a way the damage itself never would.
1. Why the note is not enough
The duty is to enable the other side to establish who you are — in person, or through the police. A note on a windscreen does neither reliably: it can blow away, be taken, be ignored, and it gives the other driver no way to verify that the details on it are real.
German courts have been consistent that leaving one does not discharge the obligation. It may help later, as evidence you were not trying to conceal anything, and that matters — but it does not stop the offence being complete the moment you drive off.
The threshold is low. Very minor damage may fall outside it, but a scratched door or a broken mirror generally does not, and this catches people in car parks far more often than on roads.
2. How long "a reasonable time" is
The law requires you to wait a reasonable period. It does not name a number, and anyone who tells you it is exactly fifteen or thirty minutes is inventing precision the statute does not have.
What actually shapes it:
- how much damage there appears to be — more damage, longer wait;
- where and when it happened: an empty industrial estate at midnight is not a busy street at six in the evening;
- how likely the other driver is to return soon.
If nobody comes, the correct step is not to leave a note and go. It is to report it to the police — in person or by phone — so there is a record and a route to your identity. That single step is the difference between an insurance claim and a criminal file.
3. Why this threatens the licence, not just the wallet
Beyond the penalty, a court may withdraw the driving entitlement (§ 69 StGB) — withdrawal rather than a temporary ban, so the entitlement itself goes and has to be applied for again after a blocking period. See our guide to driving bans for why that distinction matters so much.
This becomes a serious risk once the damage passes what courts treat as significant — a threshold set by case law rather than statute, and one that has been revised upward over time, so the figure you find online is often out of date. Points follow too, at the serious end of the scale.
There is an insurance dimension people miss. Leaving the scene can breach the obligations in your own policy, which may cut what your comprehensive cover pays for your own vehicle even though the other party is still covered.
4. Coming back afterwards
The law does contain a route back for the situation most people are actually in — a parked car, minor damage, a decision regretted within the hour.
Where the accident happened outside flowing traffic and the damage is not significant, voluntarily enabling identification within twenty-four hours can lead the court to reduce the penalty or set it aside (§ 142 Abs. 4 StGB). It is not an amnesty and it does not apply to every case — but it is real, it is time-limited, and it is the reason acting the same evening is worth far more than deciding tomorrow.
Reporting yourself is still a statement in a criminal matter. If the damage is anything other than trivial, speak to a lawyer first — that call is measured in minutes and the twenty-four hours is usually enough for both.
5. If a letter has already arrived
Post from the police or the public prosecutor about an accident you left is a criminal matter from the first line, whatever tone it takes.
- You are not obliged to explain yourself. You must give personal details — name, address, date of birth. You do not have to say what happened, and there is no penalty for staying silent about the facts.
- Registered keeper is not driver. Being asked as the keeper does not establish that you were driving, and the two are treated differently.
- Watch for a Strafbefehl. A penalty order becomes a conviction if nobody objects within two weeks — see our guide to a German penalty order.
A lawyer can request the file and see the actual evidence before anybody answers anything. That order — file first, account second — is the whole of the defence work in most of these cases.
The short version
A note is not enough; the obligation is to let the other side identify you, which in practice means waiting and then telling the police. It is a crime, not a fine, and the real exposure is the licence and your own insurance rather than the repair bill. If you have already driven off, the twenty-four hour route back exists for minor parking damage and is worth using today. If a letter has arrived, give your personal details, say nothing about the facts, and get the file read.