How To Get a Police Report for a Car Accident in California

After a California car accident, police should be called to the scene. Law enforcement officials can perform important tasks such as investigating the cause of the accident, determining whether anyone was intoxicated or in violation of driving safety laws, and obtaining contact details for those involved in the collision and witnesses on the scene.

If you have been involved in a crash, you may want to know how to get a police report for a car accident in California. Obtaining this report could help you understand how the accident happened. It could also be used as invaluable evidence if you wish to pursue a claim for monetary compensation after an accident has occurred.

Fortunately, the process to obtaining a copy of your police report is simple.

How to Get a Police Report After a Car Accident in California

If you need a copy of a collision report after a California accident, follow these steps.

1. Identify Which Law Enforcement Officials to Contact

In California, both the local police and the California Highway Patrol may respond to motor vehicle accidents and prepare crash reports. You’ll need to determine which department has the report for the crash you were involved in.

Typically, the location of the accident affects which law enforcement officials will have the report available.

• If your crash occurred on local town roads, your local police department likely has the report.
• If the collision happened on a state highway, the California Highway Patrol should have the report available.

2. Gather Required Information

Regardless of whether you request a crash report from the local or state police, there’s certain information you are likely going to need to provide. You’ll need to offer these details so law enforcement officials can find and deliver the correct documents.

At a minimum, you’ll need to provide:

• The names of the parties involved.
• The date of the accident.

If the law enforcement official on the scene of your accident provided you with an incident number, you should also have that available when requesting your report. This information will help officials to locate the correct information as quickly as possible.

3. Submit Your Request

The next step is to submit your request to the appropriate law enforcement officials. If the California Highway Patrol prepared the report, then you can request it by submitting a CHP 190 , Application for Release of Information form.

You can submit your request via mail or by visiting the nearest California Highway Patrol office during business hours. You can also request a copy of the report on the online California Crash Report Search website.

If you must make the request to your local police station, you should contact them using the non-emergency number to find out their procedure for requesting reports.

The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training has an alphabetized list of police departments in different counties and jurisdictions throughout the state of California. You can find the contact details for the police department in the location where your accident occurred.

The specific process of requesting a report can vary based on the rules set by your local department. In general, you should be able to either call or request the report in person and you may have to pay a small fee for each requested report.

When Do You Have to Call The Police After a California Car Accident?

In order for police to make a report of an accident, they must be called to the scene of the crash.

California Vehicle Code Division 10 establishes the requirements for reporting accidents in the state.

Under Division 10, Section 20001, the driver of any vehicle involved in an accident that causes serious injury or death must stop at the crash scene and fulfill the requirements set forth under Sections 20003 and 20004.

• Section 20003 mandates that you provide contact details to the others involved in the collision and render aid to those harmed in the accident.
• Section 20004 requires that if someone dies at the crash scene, involved drivers must report the accident to the nearest Highway Patrol Office or duly authorized police authority “without delay.”

Section 10 also imposes obligations on law enforcement officials, including a requirement to send reports of accidents to the main office of the Department of the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento by the fifth day of the month.

While you may not be required to file a report for more minor accidents like fender benders, it can still be a good idea to call the police to the crash scene when possible. Doing so ensures that there is a record of what occurred from an unbiased official. If there was an incident, such as a driver involved in the crash being intoxicated, the police need to know that, and it must be documented to protect your future rights.

Why You Need a Police Report After a Car Accident in California

Obtaining a police report after a car accident in California is really important if you want to take legal action to make the other driver accountable for your damages.

Under California Civil Code Section 1714 , drivers can be responsible for the consequences of their actions if they fail to exercise ordinary care when operating their vehicles. This means if you can prove the other driver in the crash was negligent or unreasonably careless compared to a hypothetical average driver, you should be able to obtain monetary compensation for the losses they caused you.

California also follows pure comparative fault rules under Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 532 P.2d 1226 (1975) . Under these rules, even if you were partly to blame, you can still hold other drivers accountable for the percentage of your damages that can be linked to their actions.

It is up to you to prove that the other driver was negligent and that this negligence was the direct cause of your crash. You must meet this burden of proof if you want to recover compensation. A police report can help you to do that because it can provide a clear, detailed, and unbiased opinion from a trusted source.

The police report can be used as evidence showing:

• What safety laws or regulations the other driver violated. A violation of safety rules creates a presumption of negligence that makes it easier to recover compensation after a crash.
• What the cause of the crash was. Police will provide information that can show how the accident happened so you can demonstrate that the other driver’s actions were a direct and proximate cause.
• How severe the accident was. More severe accidents often cause more devastating harm, which could help to bolster your case for a larger payout for crash damages.

The information from the report will be critical in making your personal injury claim. You should not hesitate to try to get a copy after you were in a crash that harmed you or someone you love.

Should You Get Help From a California Car Accident Lawyer After a Crash?

Obtaining a police report is just one of many steps that you may need to take in order to build a strong claim showing you’re entitled to monetary damages after a crash. You may also need to interview witnesses, or even hire experts who can testify as to the crash cause or the severity of the injuries resulting from it.

When you hire a California car accident lawyer, your attorney can take care of these administrative tasks for you. You won’t have to worry about tracking down which police station to contact or about finding and completing the form to request your report. Your attorney will help you to get a police report for a car accident in California as part of their efforts to build a very strong claim for you.

Most car accident attorneys charge on a contingency fee basis so you will not need to worry about owing a lot of upfront legal fees if your lawyer helps you to get a police report or otherwise to gather the evidence you need to get justice. You’ll pay your fees only if your lawyer helps you recover the money you deserve. The chances of that happening are higher with a trusted advocate on your side.

FAQ

How Long Does It Take to Get a CHP Accident Report?

When you request a police report after a car accident in California from the California Highway Patrol, it typically takes around eight days for a copy of your report to become available to you.

Are California Accident Reports Public Record?

Under California Vehicle Code section 20012, traffic collision reports are to be made available to involved drivers, parents of a minor driver, a driver’s authorized representative, injured persons, owners of vehicles or property that was damaged and attorneys representing those individuals. These reports are not public record but are instead available only to authorized individuals.

Should You Always Call the Police After a Car Accident?

It is a good idea to always call the police after an accident. Calling the police and reporting the accident is required if anyone was hurt or killed. Even when a crash isn’t that severe, it can still cause damage and it’s helpful to have the police come to the crash scene to document evidence and write a report that can later be used in an injury claim.