Criminal Liability for Traffic Accidents in Jordan: The Penalty for Causing Death or Injury and for Fleeing the Scene
A traffic accident that ends in death or injury moves the driver within minutes from the driver's seat to the position of a respondent in a criminal case, and moves the injured person's family into the position of the party whose decision shapes the outcome of that case. This liability is governed by Traffic Law No. 49 of 2008 and its amendments, in particular Articles 25, 26 and 27, together with Articles 343 and 344 of Penal Code No. 16 of 1960. The phrase "it was an accident" settles nothing in these files: the legal description of the incident, the driver's condition at the time, and what is said and signed in the first days are what determine the penalty for the driver who caused the traffic accident and how far a settlement affects it. That is why the driver and the injured person's family both need a lawyer who specializes in criminal cases to read the file before its papers settle.
1. In the Eyes of the Law, a Traffic Accident Is an Unintentional Act
The Traffic Law defines a traffic accident as any unintentional incident in which at least one moving vehicle causes human or material damage, or both. The mental element (mens rea) in traffic-accident offenses is fault, not intent, and fault here takes the forms listed in Article 343 of the Penal Code: negligence, lack of caution, or failure to observe laws and regulations.
This definition is where the difference between an unintentional run-over and an intentional run-over begins. A person who uses a vehicle as a tool to kill or injure someone intentionally does not commit a traffic accident in the legal sense; the incident leaves the Traffic Law and falls under the Penal Code's provisions on intentional homicide (qatl qasd) or intentional assault, which are far more severe and are set out in the article The Difference between Premeditated Murder, Intentional Homicide and Negligent Homicide. Between the two forms lie ambiguous incidents, such as a collision that happens after an argument between the driver and the injured person, which two descriptions compete to cover. Which description applies depends on the details of the first minutes and the available evidence, and it is the first thing the lawyer examines in the file, because the difference between the two descriptions is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony.
2. Causing Death or Permanent Disability
A driver who causes the death of a person, or causes a permanent disability to that person, is punished by imprisonment from three months to three years or a fine from 1,000 Jordanian dinars (JOD) to 2,000 dinars, or both penalties, and the court must suspend the driver's license for a period of not less than six months and not more than two years (Article 27(a) of the Traffic Law). This is a special provision that applies "notwithstanding the provisions of Article 343 of the Penal Code", the article that sets the general rule: anyone who causes the death of another through negligence, lack of caution or failure to observe laws and regulations is punished by imprisonment from six months to three years.
Two consequences follow from this provision. The first is that a permanent disability is treated like death for the purposes of the penalty, so the assessment of whether the injury has left a permanent disability becomes a decisive question in the file, built on the medical reports and the opinion of forensic medicine. The second is that the provision obliges the court itself to suspend the license as part of the judgment.
Alongside the judicial track runs a separate administrative track: the law allows the Minister to suspend, withhold or cancel a driver's license for the period the Minister sets if it is proven that its holder caused an accident through gross negligence that resulted in the death of a person or a permanent disability to that person (Article 17(a)(3)).
Liability does not arise merely because a death occurred: the driver's fault must be proven, and causation (the causal link) between that fault and the result must be established. The 2023 amendment to the Traffic Law added an express provision that the driver is not criminally prosecuted if the injured party's own act was the main cause of the accident (Article 27(c)). Which act was the main cause is settled by the technical investigation and the courts according to the facts of each accident, and the lawyer builds a position on it from the start, whether representing the driver or the injured person's family.
3. Injuries That Do Not Amount to Death or Permanent Disability
If the result of the accident is limited to bodily harm that does not reach a permanent disability, Article 344 of the Penal Code applies, under which the penalty is graded according to the seriousness of the harm and the length of the illness or incapacity for work it causes. The same article makes prosecution conditional on the victim's complaint if the harm does not result in an illness or incapacity for work lasting more than ten days, and in that case the law gives the complainant's withdrawal a direct effect on the public-right action (the State's right to prosecute). The article Assault Causing Bodily Harm under the Jordanian Penal Code sets out the degrees of harm and the incapacity-period test.
The incapacity period assessed in the medical report determines whether the case depends on the injured person's complaint or whether the Public Prosecution proceeds with it by operation of law, and whether the injury will later be described as a permanent disability and move to Article 27 of the Traffic Law. That is why the lawyer reviews the medical reports early, because a report that has settled in the file is hard to change once the charge has been built on it.
4. Fleeing the Scene and Related Offenses
The Traffic Law gives any member of the Public Security Directorate the power to arrest the driver without a warrant if the driver caused the death of a person or injured a person by driving the vehicle, or fled the scene of a traffic accident the driver caused, and to withhold the driver's license and the vehicle registration (Article 25). It then makes fleeing a separate offense, added to the offense of causing the accident:
- A driver who flees the scene of an accident they caused that resulted in human damage, or fails to report the accident to the nearest security center or police patrol, is punished by imprisonment for not less than three months and not more than six months, or a fine of not less than 500 dinars and not more than 1,000 dinars, or both (Article 26(a)(5)).
- If the damage from the accident is limited to property, the penalty for fleeing or failing to report is imprisonment for not less than two weeks and not more than one month, or a fine of not less than 50 dinars and not more than 100 dinars (Article 31).
The same penalty set for fleeing an accident involving human damage applies to anyone who agrees to put themselves forward in place of the driver who caused the accident (Article 26(a)(4)). One form this takes is a relative with a valid license coming forward in place of a driver who has none, in the belief that this makes things easier; the file then holds two offenses instead of one, and the relative exposes themselves to prosecution.
The driver's condition at the time of the accident weighs on the file from another direction. Driving under the influence of alcoholic drinks above the permitted limit, or under the influence of narcotics or psychotropic substances, is a separate offense punished by imprisonment for not less than one month and not more than three months, or a fine of not less than 250 dinars and not more than 500 dinars, or both (Article 26(c)). On top of that, it deprives the driver of the effect of a waiver of the private right (the victim's personal claim) in the offense of causing death, as explained in Section 6.
Do not make any statement about the circumstances of the accident before a lawyer has reviewed the incident, because every stage of the case is built on the first statement.
5. Table of Criminal Liability in Traffic Accidents
The following table brings together the main forms of criminal liability for traffic accidents, the provision that governs each form, and its penalty:
| Form | Governing provision | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| The driver causes the death of a person or a permanent disability to that person | Article 27(a) of the Traffic Law | Imprisonment from three months to three years or a fine from 1,000 to 2,000 dinars, or both, with the driver's license suspended for not less than six months and not more than two years |
| Causing death through negligence or lack of caution (the general rule) | Article 343 of the Penal Code | Imprisonment from six months to three years |
| An injury that does not amount to a permanent disability | Article 344 of the Penal Code | A penalty graded by the seriousness of the harm; prosecution depends on a complaint if the illness or incapacity does not exceed ten days |
| Fleeing after an accident involving human damage, or failing to report it | Article 26(a)(5) of the Traffic Law | Imprisonment from three to six months or a fine from 500 to 1,000 dinars, or both |
| Fleeing after an accident involving property damage, or failing to report it | Article 31 of the Traffic Law | Imprisonment from two weeks to one month or a fine from 50 to 100 dinars |
| A person agreeing to take the driver's place in an accident that caused human damage | Article 26(a)(4) of the Traffic Law | Imprisonment from three to six months or a fine from 500 to 1,000 dinars, or both |
| Driving under the influence of alcohol above the permitted limit or under the influence of narcotics | Article 26(c) of the Traffic Law | Imprisonment from one to three months or a fine from 250 to 500 dinars, or both |
| Intentional run-over | The Penal Code's provisions on intentional homicide and intentional assault | Not a traffic accident; the penalties for intentional offenses apply |
| The injured party's act is the main cause of the accident | Article 27(c) of the Traffic Law | The driver is not criminally prosecuted |
Reading the table alone does not decide the outcome of a particular file. Penalties accumulate when more than one form arises in a single accident, such as causing death together with fleeing or with driving under the influence of alcohol, and the description on which the file settles determines which row applies.
6. Waiving the Private Right: Where It Helps and Where the Court Will Not Take It into Account
The driver and the driver's family usually seek a settlement with the family of the deceased or the injured person, and in legal terms this settlement takes the form of a waiver of the private right. The 2023 amendment to the Traffic Law limited the effect of this waiver in the offense of causing death or permanent disability: it expressly bars the court from taking a waiver of the private right into account if the person who caused the accident was under the influence of alcoholic drinks, narcotics or psychotropic substances, or was driving the vehicle without a license or with a license whose category does not entitle them to drive it (Article 27(b)). In other cases, the waiver keeps its weight in the court's assessment of the penalty.
This means that a settlement, whatever its value, does not by itself end the criminal case in offenses of death and permanent disability: the public right remains, and it is the court that assesses the penalty. The article The Public Right and the Private Right under Jordanian Law explains why a waiver does not end the criminal case in most offenses. The Penal Code also allows the court, in cases and under conditions it sets, to replace a custodial sentence with alternatives that include community service (Article 25 bis), and whether those alternatives apply to a particular file depends on the conditions of the provision and the facts of the case.
The timing of the settlement, the wording of the waiver document, and whether it covers civil compensation or is limited to the private right in the criminal case all vary with the facts of the accident and the insurer's position, which is itself a legal point that merits consultation.
Practical note: Traffic Law No. 49 of 2008 has been amended more than once, including by amending Law No. 18 of 2023, which brought the most important provisions on criminal liability: barring the court from taking a waiver of the private right into account in cases of alcohol, narcotics or no license, not prosecuting the driver if the injured party's act was the main cause of the accident, and heavier penalties for a number of violations. Amending Law No. 10 of 2026 was issued after it. The lawyer checks the text in force on the date of the accident before making any assessment, because old versions of the law are still in circulation, and the matter merits a review of the case or consulting a specialist lawyer.
7. Liability from the Side of the Injured Person's or the Deceased's Family
The injured person's family, or the heirs of the deceased, hold two positions in the file. In the criminal case, they file the complaint or join as a party claiming the private right, and their decision to waive it or not affects the penalty as described above. On the financial side, their claim for compensation for the death or the injury remains open against the driver and the insurer, and it has its own rules separate from the criminal case.
One of the mistakes some families make is signing a blanket waiver at an amicable or tribal settlement meeting without specifying whether it covers civil compensation, and it is later invoked against them. Do not sign any waiver before the lawyer has defined its scope precisely, because the wording written at the settlement meeting may decide rights its holders never meant to give up.
8. Frequently Asked Questions
What is the penalty for a driver who causes a fatal traffic accident in Jordan?
Article 27(a) of the Traffic Law provides for imprisonment from three months to three years or a fine from 1,000 to 2,000 dinars, or both, with the driver's license suspended for not less than six months and not more than two years. Separate penalties are added if the accident is combined with fleeing or with driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.
Is the driver imprisoned if the deceased's family waives their private right?
The waiver does not end the criminal case in offenses involving death; the public right remains, and the court may weigh the waiver when assessing the penalty. The court may not take it into account at all if the driver was under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, or was driving without a license or with a license whose category does not entitle them to drive the vehicle (Article 27(b)).
What is the difference between an intentional and an unintentional run-over?
Under the Traffic Law a traffic accident is an unintentional incident, so an unintentional run-over is governed by the Traffic Law and Articles 343 and 344 of the Penal Code. An intentional run-over, meaning the use of a vehicle to injure or kill a person intentionally, is not considered a traffic accident, and the Penal Code's provisions on intentional offenses apply to it.
What is the penalty for fleeing the scene of an accident in Jordan?
If the accident caused human damage, the penalty is imprisonment from three to six months or a fine from 500 to 1,000 dinars, or both (Article 26(a)(5)). If the damage was to property only, it is imprisonment from two weeks to one month or a fine from 50 to 100 dinars (Article 31). This penalty is added to the penalty for causing the accident itself.
Is the driver criminally prosecuted if the injured person was at fault?
The driver is not criminally prosecuted if the injured party's act was the main cause of the accident (Article 27(c)). That assessment rests on the technical investigation and the facts of each accident, and some fault on the injured person's part is not enough on its own to remove the driver's liability.
May a relative of the driver take responsibility for the accident in the driver's place?
No. Anyone who agrees to put themselves forward in place of the driver who caused an accident that resulted in human damage is punished by imprisonment from three to six months or a fine from 500 to 1,000 dinars, or both (Article 26(a)(4)).
Legal Consultation
Traffic accident cases are painful for both sides: for the family of the deceased or the injured person, there is a loss no money can make good and a decision on a waiver that must preserve their civil rights in full; for the driver, there is a criminal file that may end in imprisonment and a license suspension, and whose course is set by the first description of the incident and by the driver's condition at the time of the accident. The first statement, the waiver document, and the assessment of disability and the incapacity period are steps that are hard to undo once they have settled in the file. For specialist legal consultation in criminal cases and traffic accident cases, or to see how this file connects with the rules on compulsory insurance for bodily injuries in Jordan and civil compensation for material and moral damage, you can contact Alabwini Law Firm & Legal Consultancy.
