Short answer: leaving the scene of a crash you were in is one of the heaviest riding violations in the administrative schedule. Article 7(9)(c) of Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP prices failing to stop, failing to preserve the scene, failing to help the injured, or failing to report — 8,000,000–10,000,000 VND, six points off the licence, and the bike subject to being held. Where the accident caused injury or death, the same conduct becomes a criminal matter, not a fine matter.
What the law demands at the scene
Article 80 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety (No. 36/2024/QH15) sets the sequence every rider is inside from the moment of impact: stop immediately, keep the scene as it is, help anyone injured, and report to the nearest police or people’s committee. The article also protects the helper — a rider who takes the injured to hospital and returns to the scene has still met the duty. The decree then prices the two ways of failing it: a mild version and a severe one.
The mild version (Article 7(5)(a)) catches riders involved in a crash who fail to stop or preserve the scene where no serious consequence followed — 1,000,000–2,000,000 VND with two points. The severe version (Article 7(9)(c)) is the full abandonment: not stopping, not staying, not helping, not reporting — 8,000,000–10,000,000 VND, six points, and the vehicle can be held on the spot under the decree’s holding rules.
Why fleeing converts the case
The administrative fine is the ceiling of what leaving the scene costs when nobody was much hurt. But Vietnamese criminal law treats fleeing after a crash that caused damage as an aggravating, sometimes defining, element of the road-traffic offences — and in the worst cases, leaving an injured person unhelped is punished as its own wrong, beyond the driving violation. Practically: the accident that would have been a 10–14 million VND accident-band fine if you stayed becomes a criminal file if you ride away. Insurance moves the same direction — a compulsory third-party policy expects the rider to have reported; a rider who vanishes from the scene of their own crash finds the insurer’s obligations narrowing fast.
The tourist version of this mistake
The common scenario: a clip in traffic, both bikes upright, some scratches, the tourist’s instinct is to wave apologetically and ride on. The other rider’s instinct — sometimes — is to call the police and report a hit-and-run. A small, cheap incident becomes an 8-figure case with an impounded passport in the middle. The rule that works in Hanoi: if it touched, stop; if anyone is hurt or the machines are down, call the police (113); photograph everything before the bikes move; and never let a bystander’s “không sao, đi đi” decide your legal position for you.
Information, not legal advice. Verified against Law 36/2024/QH15 and Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP on 2026-09-22.