Flores

A driver is involved in an accident causing injury to another. She stops but leaves the accident scene without providing identification as required by Vehicle Code sections 20001 and 20003. When she is arrested several days later, she claims she was unconscious until after the accident scene cleared.

We hold that a driver who is unconscious at the scene of an injury accident may violate sections 20001 and 20003 if she fails to provide identifying information as soon as reasonably possible after regaining consciousness.

We also hold that section 40000.13 does not preclude a felony conviction under section 20001 for the driver involved in an injury accident who stops at the scene but who fails to perform the duties required by section 20003. We affirm Flores’s felony conviction under section 20001.

Facts

Defendant, Tina Ann Flores, was with Troy Allen at Neptune’s Net, a restaurant and bar on the Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County. Robert Boomhower, known as “Yo Bob,” was also there.

About 4 p.m. Flores and Allen left Neptune’s Net. Flores got into the driver’s seat of Allen’s Corvette. Allen got into the passenger seat. A restaurant patron, Tom Evans, saw…