How to get a car accident report in Illinois

Where to get the report

• Illinois State Police (state troopers) $5 online or by mail, redacted

  If a trooper worked the crash, ISP sells the report. First check that ISP handled it: the “Investigated By” box at the upper left of the motorist report you were given should say Illinois State Police; if you have no report, call the ISP Patrol Records Unit at 217-785-0614. ISP says it rarely handles crashes on municipal streets. Online (E-Pay), ISP adds a service fee to the statutory $5.00 fee: 2.35 percent with a $1.00 minimum for credit cards. You supply the agency crash report number, a driver’s first and last name, the crash date, the road (for example Interstate 55) and the county; requests are processed in the order received and emailed from ISP.CrashReport@illinois.gov once approved, which ISP says may take 10 or more business days. By mail, send a written request with the crash report number, date, location and the names of the drivers and passengers, a check or money order for $5.00 payable to “Illinois State Police” (no cash) and a self-addressed stamped envelope to Illinois State Police, Patrol Records Unit, 801 South 7th Street, Suite 600-M, Springfield, Illinois 62703. ISP says every crash report request is governed by the Freedom of Information Act and that you will receive a redacted version; for an unredacted copy you must send a subpoena or an order signed by a judge, and a subpoena must come with an additional $20.00 subpoena processing fee. A Traffic Crash Reconstruction Report costs $20.00 by check or money order to the same address; ask ISP.Patrol.Records.Unit@Illinois.gov for its report number or status.

  Official page

• City police and county sheriffs From the agency, $5 or less

  If city police or a sheriff’s office worked the crash, ask that agency’s records unit for the report. Under 625 ILCS 5/11-416, a local agency may charge a fee not to exceed $5 per copy, or not to exceed $20 if a crash reconstruction officer or team investigated. The investigating officer’s report must not be held confidential by the officer or agency that wrote it (§11-408(a)), and the Freedom of Information Act says agencies of local government shall provide traffic crash reports and the identities of witnesses to traffic crashes, except when disclosure would interfere with an active criminal investigation by the agency that received the request (5 ILCS 140/7(1)(d)(iv)). Each agency sets its own request process, and some sell reports through an online vendor that adds a convenience fee (Bensenville police, for example, add a $5.00 convenience fee to the standard $5.00 fee for reports bought online through Quicket Solutions, or you can request by mail), so check the agency’s records page for the current method and total before you pay.

  Official page

• Illinois Department of Transportation Not a source: IDOT copies confidential

  Every investigating officer must forward the crash report to IDOT within 10 days after the investigation (§11-408(a)), but you cannot buy it there. Under §11-412, the reports IDOT receives are for the confidential use of IDOT and the Secretary of State, are exempt from inspection and copying under the Freedom of Information Act, are furnished to government agencies and contractors doing highway safety research for statistical or analytical use only, and may not be used as evidence in any civil or criminal trial arising from the crash. On demand, IDOT must disclose the identity of the insurance carrier, if any (§11-412(a)), and must give a person who made, or claims to have made, a report, or a court, a certificate showing whether a specified report was made (§11-412(b)); IDOT or the Secretary of State may also disclose the identity of a person involved in the crash when it is not otherwise known or the person denies being there. Request the report from the agency that investigated.

  Official page

When you must report a crash in Illinois

Injury or over $1,500: notify police

Under 625 ILCS 5/11-407(a), the driver of a vehicle involved in a crash must, if no police officer is present, give notice by the fastest available means of communication to the local police department if the crash happened inside a municipality, or otherwise to the nearest office of the county sheriff or the nearest headquarters of the Illinois State Police. Notice is required if the crash (1) injures or kills anyone; (2) damages the property of any person, including the driver, by more than $1,500, or by more than $500 if any vehicle involved is required to be insured under Section 7-601 but is not; (3) involves a school bus and causes any property damage, injury or death; or (4) happens within 50 feet of a school bus and injures or kills someone waiting to board or just getting off. If the driver is physically unable to give notice, another occupant who can must do it (§11-407(b)). Section 11-407 states no penalty of its own; under §11-202, failing to perform an act Chapter 11 requires is a petty offense unless the chapter says otherwise. Before that, you must stop. In a crash that injures or kills anyone, §11-401(a) requires you to stop at or as close as possible to the scene, return to it, and remain until you comply with §11-403; failing to do so is a Class 4 felony (§11-401(c)). Personal injury here means any injury requiring immediate professional treatment in a medical facility or doctor’s office. A driver who did not stop must report the place, date, approximate time, driver’s name and address, registration number and the names of all other occupants at a police station or sheriff’s office near the crash within one-half hour (or within one-half hour of hospital discharge if hospitalized and incapacitated); failing to make that report is a Class 2 felony, or a Class 1 felony if someone died (§11-401(b), (d)). In a crash that damages only an attended vehicle, §11-402(a) requires the same stop (you may first move to the nearest safe spot off the highway, such as an exit ramp shoulder, frontage road or cross street); not stopping is a Class A misdemeanor. In both kinds of crash, §11-403 requires you to give your name, address, registration number and the vehicle owner’s name, to show your driver’s license on request if available, and to give reasonable help to anyone hurt, including arranging transport to a doctor or hospital; if no one can receive the information and no officer is present, report the crash at the nearest police office (a Class A misdemeanor if you do not). If you hit an unattended vehicle or other property, stop, find the owner or leave a written note with your name, address, registration number and the vehicle owner’s name, and notify the nearest police office without unnecessary delay (§11-404, a Class A misdemeanor).

The driver report you may have to file

Repealed; state-vehicle drivers only

Illinois drivers no longer file their own crash report with the state. The old driver’s duty to send a written report within 10 days (625 ILCS 5/11-406) was repealed by Public Act 102-560, effective August 20, 2021. IDOT’s crash reports page and its Illinois Motorist Report site both say that, under that act, a motorist involved in a crash will not need to fill out an SR1B Illinois Motorist Report and send it to IDOT; under state rules, though, any employee involved in a crash in a state vehicle must still file one with IDOT’s Bureau of Data Collection (request the form at DOT.CrashForms@illinois.gov). Expect one conflict: the Illinois State Police crash reports page still says each driver must file a crash report if the crash caused a death, bodily injury, or more than $1,500 of property damage ($500 if any driver is uninsured) and, if no officer comes to the scene, file it with ISP as soon as possible, within 10 days. That 10-day filing duty matches the repealed §11-406, not the current statute, but ISP still takes these reports: online for a single-vehicle, property-damage-only crash with no injuries on an Interstate or a U.S. or Illinois route, and as a Desk Report within 10 days for a freeway crash in the Chicago area, at the Troop 3 locations its page lists. If a trooper did not come to your crash on a state highway, filing with ISP as its page asks puts the crash on record. Two more caveats. A municipality may by ordinance require the driver or owner to file a written crash report with a designated city office, and that report is confidential (§11-415); we did not survey city ordinances, so ask the police department in the city where the crash happened. And if a driver in your crash was uninsured, the Safety Responsibility law can come into play: §7-201 has IDOT review crashes with injury, death, or more than $1,500 of damage to any one person’s property (more than $500 if a vehicle that must be insured was not) to decide whether an uninsured operator or owner must post security. Sections 7-201 and 7-201.1 still refer to a report “required to be filed under Section 11-407” and to a 15-day warning when IDOT asks a driver for a missing report, while §11-407 itself now requires only immediate notice to police. If you receive such a request from IDOT, answer it within the time it gives.

What the report costs

$5, or $20 reconstruction

625 ILCS 5/11-416 sets the fee. The Illinois State Police must be paid $5 for each copy of a crash report it investigated, or $20 if a crash reconstruction officer or team investigated, and may use an online payment system. Other state agencies and local police and sheriffs may charge a fee not to exceed $5 per copy, or not to exceed $20 for a crash a reconstruction officer or team investigated. ISP’s own pages add charges of their own: its E-Pay service adds 2.35 percent with a $1.00 minimum to the $5.00 fee on credit card payments (mail with a check or money order avoids it), and a request for an unredacted copy by subpoena needs an additional $20.00 subpoena processing fee. A local agency’s online vendor may add its own convenience fee, so check the total before you pay.

When the report is ready

Filed in 10 days; ISP 10+ business days

The investigating officer must forward the written report to IDOT within 10 days after the investigation, or within another time IDOT prescribes (625 ILCS 5/11-408(a)). For ISP reports, ISP says requests are processed in the order received and are not emailed or mailed until the report has been approved, so a request may take 10 or more business days; check your spam folder for mail from ISP.CrashReport@illinois.gov. We found no official statewide figure for how quickly local agencies release reports or how long they keep them; ask the investigating agency.

Who can get a copy

Anyone; expect a redacted copy

We found no Illinois statute listing who may get a crash report; ISP says requests run through the Freedom of Information Act, under which each public body must make public records available to any person and may not ask why you want them, except to decide whether a request is commercial or whether to waive fees (5 ILCS 140/3(a), (c)). Agencies may redact “private information,” which FOIA defines to include driver’s license numbers, home addresses, personal license plates, home or personal phone numbers, personal email addresses, medical records and financial information (§§2(c-5), 7(1)(b)), and information whose disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy unless the person consents in writing (§7(1)(c)). ISP says you will receive a redacted version and that an unredacted copy requires a subpoena or an order signed by a judge. Local agencies must provide crash reports and the identities of crash witnesses unless that would interfere with an active criminal investigation by the agency (§7(1)(d)(iv)). Each agency applies the redaction rules itself, so ask the agency what it releases to the people involved; in a lawsuit, a subpoena is the route to a full copy.

What to do now

1. 1

   Notify police from the scene if required

   If anyone is hurt or killed or damage tops $1,500 and no officer is there, call the local police, the sheriff or ISP right away. Exchange name, address, registration and owner with the other driver in every crash.

2. 2

   Get the agency and report number

   Ask the officer which agency is writing the report and for the report number, and keep any exchange card you are given. ISP asks for that number to find your report.

3. 3

   Request the report from that agency

   ISP: $5 online or by mail, redacted, often 10 or more business days. City police or sheriff: $5 or less under state law. IDOT does not release copies.

4. 4

   Request video separately, now

   The report does not include video. Body camera and dashcam video are requested from the investigating agency under FOIA, and body camera video that is not flagged must be destroyed after 90 days, so ask quickly.

Frequently asked questions