By Dan Rose, a Senior Local Business Guide Specializing in Personal Injury Legal Services in New York City

A driver hits you on a Queens street and keeps going, and in the minutes afterward the only thing anyone can think about is the plate number nobody caught. The question that decides whether you are paid, though, is not who the driver was. It is whose insurance stands in for that driver, and whether three deadlines that start running that night are met.

New York has a complete system for this. It pays medical bills, part of your lost wages and, in serious cases, compensation for the injury itself, even when the driver is never found. It also has unusually short notice deadlines, and they are the reason good hit-and-run claims fail.

Whose insurance pays when the driver is never found?

It depends on what is parked in your household, not on the car that hit you.

Every auto policy written in New York must include uninsured motorist coverage, and the state’s standard endorsement treats a hit-and-run vehicle as uninsured. That endorsement covers more people than most realize. The “insured” includes the named policyholder and, while living in the same household, their spouse and the relatives of either of them. So a pedestrian who owns no car but lives with a sister or a parent who does is usually covered by that relative’s policy.

Only if nobody in the household has a policy does the claim go to the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, known as MVAIC. It exists for New York residents with no other auto insurance available to them. Insurance Law § 5202 defines who qualifies, and it excludes anyone who is already an insured under a policy’s uninsured motorist coverage. In other words, MVAIC is the fallback, not the first call.

Both routes work in two layers. The first is no-fault: medical treatment and part of your lost wages, paid regardless of fault. The second is the claim for the injury itself — pain, suffering, lasting limitation — which is only available if the injury clears New York’s serious injury threshold. Insurance Law § 5221 applies the same threshold to MVAIC claims.

The three conditions every hit-and-run claim has to meet

The car has to have touched you. Insurance Law § 5217 limits hit-and-run claims to injuries that arose out of physical contact between the vehicle and either you or the vehicle you were in. The uninsured motorist endorsement has the same requirement. A driver who forced you off the road and never made contact does not qualify, however clear the fault.

The police have to hear about it within 24 hours. Under § 5208(a)(2), a hit-and-run must be reported to a police, peace or judicial officer within twenty-four hours. The statute forgives a late report only if it was not reasonably possible to make one in time — a person taken unconscious to Jamaica Hospital is the classic example. Feeling fine at the scene and deciding to report it tomorrow is not.

The written claim has to be in within 90 days. The same section requires a sworn statement that the claim is against a driver whose identity cannot be found, filed within ninety days. The uninsured motorist endorsement imposes its own ninety-day deadline for a statement under oath to the insurance company. A court can allow a late filing only on a showing that timely filing was not reasonably possible, and the application itself has to be made within a year.

None of those deadlines waits for the police to finish looking for the driver.

How much money is actually available

The no-fault layer is the same as in any New York car case: up to $50,000 in basic economic loss under Insurance Law § 5102, covering medical treatment and lost earnings of up to $2,000 a month for up to three years. MVAIC pays that same layer to a qualified person under § 5221.

The injury claim is where the limits bite. The standard uninsured motorist endorsement pays up to $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Against MVAIC, Insurance Law § 5210 caps what MVAIC pays on a judgment at the same $25,000 for one person’s injury. Those are the amounts for a seriously injured person, not a starting offer.

The way past that ceiling is supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, or SUM, which many policyholders buy at higher limits on their own policy. It is worth pulling the declarations page of every policy in the household, because SUM coverage is the difference between a claim capped at $25,000 and one that is not.

An example: a pedestrian on Liberty Avenue who owns no car

A hospital aide is crossing Liberty Avenue after a night shift when a car turns, strikes her and drives off. Nobody gets the plate. She does not own a car, but she lives with her brother, who has an insured car in his name.

Because she is a relative living in his household, she is an insured under his policy, so his insurer handles both layers. Her treatment over four months costs $41,000. She earned $3,200 a month and cannot work for those four months. No-fault pays 80 percent of lost earnings, which would be $2,560, but the monthly cap is $2,000, so she receives $8,000. Together that is $49,000, just inside the $50,000 limit.

Her fractured wrist clears the serious injury threshold, so she has an injury claim as well. If her brother’s policy carries only the mandatory uninsured motorist coverage, the most available for her pain, suffering and lasting limitation is $25,000. If he bought SUM coverage at $100,000, the ceiling is very different. Had she lived alone with no car in the household, the same claim would go to MVAIC, with the same $50,000 no-fault layer and the same $25,000 cap on the injury claim.

What decides whether she sees any of it is whether the police heard about the crash that night and whether her sworn statement was filed within ninety days.

Where hit-and-run claims go wrong

The report made the next day

People go home, sleep, wake up sore and call the precinct a day later. The statute asks whether a timely report was reasonably possible, and for someone who walked away from the scene, the answer is usually yes. Report it the same night, and write down the report number.

The near-miss that never touched you

A driver swerves into your lane, you brake hard and hit a pole, and the driver never makes contact. That is a real injury caused by real negligence, but it is not a hit-and-run claim under § 5217 or the endorsement, because there was no physical contact. Anyone describing the crash should be precise about whether the other car actually touched you or your vehicle.

Filing with MVAIC when a household policy exists

MVAIC is only for people with no other insurance available. A claim sent there by someone who is covered under a relative’s policy is a claim sent to the wrong place, and the ninety-day clock on the right insurer keeps running while it is sorted out. Find out first who in the household has a policy.

Waiting for the police to find the driver

Many hit-and-run drivers are never identified, and the ninety-day deadline does not pause while an investigation is open. File on time. If the driver is later found, the claim can move to that driver’s insurer; if the driver is found and has no insurance, a different MVAIC deadline of 180 days applies under § 5208(a)(1).

Never checking for SUM coverage

The $25,000 cap is a default, not a law of nature. Families often have SUM coverage on a policy they have never read. Nobody asks for the declarations page, and a claim that could have been worth far more settles at the mandatory minimum.

What to do in the first week

Call 911 or go to the precinct the same day and get the report number. If you were driving, file the DMV crash report, form MV-104, within ten days; the DMV treats a missed filing as a misdemeanor and can suspend a license until it is filed. Notify the household insurer in writing, because the no-fault application has its own 30-day deadline.

Then preserve what will not wait. Business cameras along Jamaica and Liberty Avenues overwrite their footage, often within days. A partial plate, a color, a direction of travel and the names of anyone who stopped all go into the file while people still remember them.

Common questions

What if the police find the driver later?
The claim moves to that driver’s insurer, and the ordinary rules for an identified driver apply. If the driver turns out to be uninsured, MVAIC’s 180-day notice deadline for an identified uninsured vehicle applies instead.

I was on a bicycle. Does any of this apply to me?
Yes. The physical contact rule is met if the car struck you, whether you were walking, cycling or driving. The same household-first, MVAIC-second order decides who pays.

I don’t own a car and don’t live with anyone who does. Can I still be paid?
Yes, through MVAIC, if you are a New York resident with no other auto insurance available, the car made contact with you, and the reporting and ninety-day deadlines are met.

Do I need the license plate number?
No. A hit-and-run claim exists precisely because the driver cannot be identified. A partial plate or description helps the police, but the claim does not depend on it.

Can I still claim if I missed the 90 days?
Possibly, but only on a showing that filing in time was not reasonably possible, and the application to a court has to be made within a year. It is a narrow door, which is why the ninety days matters so much.

Where to start

If you were hit in Queens by a driver who left, the work that protects the claim happens in the first days, not the first months. Ribowsky Law handles hit-and-run claims across the borough, including the notices to MVAIC and to household insurers, and the injury team at Ribowsky Law can tell you quickly which route applies to you.

This article is general information about New York law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Coverage depends on the policies in your household and the facts of the accident. This was accurate as of October 2026.

Speak to a Queens injury attorney

If you were hurt in a hit-and-run anywhere in Queens, Ribowsky Law offers a free consultation, and there is no fee unless we recover for you. Directions to the office are on the map below.

Ribowsky Law
109-12 Jamaica Ave, Richmond Hill, NY 11418
Phone: 718-659-5333