Failure to turn in had caused a motor accident (3-3-3)
I believe the answer is:
hit-and-run
'accident' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'failure to turn in had caused a motor' is the wordplay.
'failure' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to turn' becomes 't' (abbreviation in Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations).
'caused a motor' becomes 'run' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'in'+'had'='tinhad'
'tinhad' is an anagram of 'hitand'.
'hitand'+'run'='HIT-AND-RUN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hit-and-run that I've seen before include "Kind of motor accident" , "Accident in which driver flees from scene" , "Involving driver who leaves scene of accident without stopping" , "Of accident, where the driver did not stop" , "Type of road accident" .)