According to the provisions of Article 133 of the Criminal Law, there are three different penalty levels (sentencing levels) for the crime of causing traffic accidents:
 1. Those who violate the traffic and transportation management laws and regulations, thus causing serious injury or death or causing heavy losses to public or private property, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention. The so-called "major accident" here refers to one of the following circumstances according to the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving Traffic Accidents:
 (1) One person died or more than three people were seriously injured, and they bear all or the main responsibility for the accident
 (2) More than three people died and bear the same responsibility for the accident
 (3) Causing direct loss of public property or other people's property, the total or main liability of the accident is unable to compensate more than 300000 yuan.
 2. Paragraph 2 of Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving Traffic Accidents stipulates that traffic accidents that cause more than one person to be seriously injured and bear all or the main responsibility for the accident and have one of the following circumstances shall be convicted and punished as traffic accident crime:
 (1) Driving motor vehicles after drinking or taking drugs
 (2) Driving motor vehicles without driving qualification
 (3) Driving a motor vehicle knowing that the safety device is incomplete or the safety parts fail
 (4) Driving a motor vehicle knowing that it has no license plate or has been scrapped
 (5) Seriously overloaded
 (6) Escaping from the scene of the accident in order to avoid legal investigation.
 3. Other particularly serious circumstances refer to any of the following circumstances:
 (1) More than 2 people died or more than 5 people were seriously injured, bearing all or major responsibilities
 (2) More than 6 people died and bear the same responsibility for the accident
 (3) Causing direct loss of public property or other people's property, the total or main liability of the accident is unable to compensate more than 600000 yuan. Whoever commits the crime of causing a traffic accident according to Article 133 of the Criminal Law shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention for escaping after causing a traffic accident or other especially bad circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years for death caused by escaping, and shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years.
 Article 6 If the perpetrator, in order to avoid legal investigation and take the victim away from the scene of the accident after the traffic accident, conceals or abandons the victim, causing the victim to die or become seriously disabled, he shall be convicted and punished for the crime of intentional homicide or intentional injury in accordance with the provisions of Article 232 and the second paragraph of Article 234 of the Criminal Law, respectively.