How to get a car accident report in Kansas

Where to get the report

• Kansas Highway Patrol (Records Portal, mail or in person) $5.00 per report; allow 30 business days

  KHP’s Records page says copies of crash reports, witness statements, photos and investigation records can be ordered through its Records Portal, in person, or by written request to the Records Department at General Headquarters, 122 SW 7th Street, Topeka, KS 66603 (general questions 785-296-6800), and asks for the case number, date, location and the names of those involved. It says “A fee of $5.00 will be assessed for crash reports and $2.00 per witness statement,” with other record costs given at the time of the request. KHP’s portal FAQ says you may also email, mail or fax a request (KHP.Records@ks.gov; fax 785-296-4013; Records, Kansas Highway Patrol, 708 SW Jackson, Topeka, KS 66603), that for mailed, emailed or faxed requests KHP mails an invoice when payment is required and mails the records once payment (personal, cashier’s or business check, or money order) arrives, or mails them right away when no payment is required, that the portal lets you track the request and pay by credit or debit card, and that you should allow 30 business days because of the volume of requests, longer in some cases. A KHP case number starts with the year and is 10 digits long, and is usually on the “Crash Information Exchange Form” the trooper gives you.

  Official page

• Kansas.gov KHP Online Accident Reports Online download; search by case number

  KHP’s portal FAQ says you can also buy KHP accident reports at Kansas.gov’s KHP Online Accident Reports site and should search there only by case number. The site requires a Kansas.gov account and a credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover), says there is a fee for downloaded documents and that the price includes funds for the state portal, which Kansas.gov runs under a contract administered by the Information Network of Kansas; we could not see the price without starting a purchase. You must certify that you will not use names or addresses from the records to sell property or services (K.S.A. 45-230). The site’s help page says reports from May 1, 2013 on are online, that there can be a delay between the end of an investigation and the report reaching KHP Records, that parts may be redacted, for example to protect minors, and that you can ask for a free email when a case is updated. Questions about a report go to KHP Records, 785-296-6800 or KHP.Records@ks.gov. The site is KHP’s own retrieval system, so it holds Highway Patrol reports, not city or county ones.

  Official page

• City police or county sheriff (examples: Wichita, Overland Park) Ask that agency; fees vary

  Most crashes are worked by city police or a sheriff, and you get the report from that agency under its own procedures and fees: the Kansas Open Records Act lets each agency set reasonable fees no higher than its actual cost (K.S.A. 45-219(c)). Examples from the agencies’ own pages: the Wichita Police Department’s online accident report site lets you search by incident number, or by first and last name or by street name, each with an approximate accident date that must be within 24 hours of the actual date, and says reports are delivered as PDFs “at a cost of $16.00 each,” up to 50 at a time, with a valid email required (Records Bureau 316-350-3689). The Overland Park Police Department says you can download a free PDF copy by entering a driver’s full legal name and the case number (a four-digit year and a six-digit number), that reports are online after approval, typically within 10 business days, that hit-and-run investigations may take up to 30 business days, and that reports of crashes before 2015 and of fatal crashes are not online, with fatality reports requested through an open records request (Police Records, 12400 Foster Street, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays).

  Official page

• Kansas Department of Transportation (state copy) KORA request to KDOT’s records office

  Officers must send KDOT a written report of every crash with injury or death or apparent total property damage of $1,000 or more within 10 days after the investigation (K.S.A. 8-1611(a)), and KDOT’s 2024 Law Enforcement Crash Report Coding Manual says these forms “are considered ‘Open Records’ for the public” and that KDOT is by law the repository for all reportable crash reports. KDOT’s Open Records page lists crash reports among commonly requested records and offers online request forms, including a Traffic Safety Request Form for traffic records and crash statistics. It says most records are produced within three business days, that it usually sends records electronically, that under Executive Order 18-05 it charges nothing for the first one hundred pages of paper copies, that it may charge for staff time, and that it will tell you first if fees will be more than $100 and will likely require advance payment then. The agency that responded remains the quickest source for its own report.

  Official page

When you must report a crash in Kansas

No officer? Injury, death, $1,000+: call

Stop and stay (K.S.A. 8-1602(a)): the driver of any vehicle in a crash that injures or kills anyone, causes great bodily harm, or damages any attended vehicle or property must immediately stop at or as close as possible to the scene, return if needed, and stay until meeting the duties in K.S.A. 8-1604. Leaving is a misdemeanor when total property damage is under $1,000; a class A person misdemeanor for any injury or damage of $1,000 or more; a severity level 8 person felony for great bodily harm; a severity level 6 person felony for a death; a severity level 4 person felony for a death if the driver knew or reasonably should have known the crash caused injury or death; and a severity level 3 person felony for more than one death in that case (§ 8-1602(b), as amended by 2024 House Bill 2665, “Levi’s law,” effective July 1, 2024). The director of vehicles may revoke the license of anyone convicted (§ 8-1602(c)). Information and aid (§ 8-1604(a)): give your name, address and the registration number of the vehicle you are driving, and on request show your license and give the name of your liability insurer and the policy number, to any injured person and to the driver, occupant or attendant of any damaged vehicle or property, and to any police officer at the scene or investigating; as far as possible, find out whether anyone was hurt and give reasonable assistance, including carrying or arranging transport to a doctor or hospital if treatment is apparently needed or the injured person asks. Report to police (§ 8-1604(b)): if no police officer is present, the driver, or any occupant 18 or older, must immediately report the crash by the quickest available means to the nearest office of a duly authorized police authority if there is apparently property damage of $1,000 or more, anyone involved is injured or killed, or the people entitled to your information are not present or not in condition to receive it. Unattended vehicle or property (§ 8-1605): stop immediately and either find and tell the operator or owner your name, address and registration number or securely attach a written notice with that information in a conspicuous place, and without unnecessary delay notify the nearest police authority; a violation is a misdemeanor. Clearing the road (§ 8-15,107): except in a crash with death or apparent injury or hazardous materials, the owner or driver of a vehicle obstructing traffic on an interstate, U.S. highway or multilane or divided road must make every reasonable effort to move it if that can be done safely, it needs no tow and it can run under its own power without further damage or danger; moving does not excuse the duties above (§§ 8-1602(d), 8-15,107(d)). Unless another penalty is set, a misdemeanor under the traffic act is a class C misdemeanor, rising to class B and class A for second and third offenses within a year (§ 8-2116(b)); giving information in a required oral or written report knowing or having reason to believe it is false is a misdemeanor (§ 8-1608). These rules apply on highways and elsewhere throughout the state (§ 8-1601). KDOT’s crash page summarizes the law as: no report to police is necessary for a crash with no deaths or injuries and less than $1,000 total damage, though you must still stop and exchange information; that summary does not mention the § 8-1605 police notice for an unattended vehicle or property, or the § 8-1604(b)(3) report when the other people cannot receive your information.

The driver report you may have to file

Only if the Division of Vehicles asks

Kansas has no standing driver crash report. The Division of Vehicles of the Kansas Department of Revenue (K.S.A. 8-1413) may require any driver or owner of a vehicle in a crash to file a written report whenever it deems that necessary to satisfy another provision of law (K.S.A. 8-1607). If you are required to report and do not, the director of vehicles must suspend your license or permit and any nonresident operating privilege until the report is filed, and may extend the suspension by up to 30 days; failing to file a required written report on time is a misdemeanor (K.S.A. 8-1609). The statute sets no deadline of its own, so follow the one in any request you receive. Required reports go on the form approved by the Kansas Department of Transportation (K.S.A. 8-1612(b)). We found no Department of Revenue page or form for a driver-filed crash report. KHP says the officer gives drivers a “Crash Information Exchange Form” on the day of the crash; that is the officer’s handout, not a report you file.

What the report costs

Set by each agency; KHP lists $5.00

No Kansas statute that we found sets a crash report fee. Under the Kansas Open Records Act each agency may charge reasonable fees for access or copies, which may not exceed the actual cost of furnishing the records, including staff time and the cost to review and redact, but not unrelated incidental costs; staff time must use the lowest-cost category of staff reasonably necessary and be based on salary or hourly wage without benefits; on request the agency must give you an itemized statement; and it may require advance payment (K.S.A. 45-218(f), 45-219(a), (c), as amended by 2025 House Bill 2134, effective July 1, 2025). If staff time will exceed five hours or cost more than $200, the agency must try to contact you about reducing the cost, and if you do not answer by the end of the third business day the request is treated as withdrawn until you get back in touch (§ 45-219(e)). For a state executive branch agency, you may appeal the reasonableness of a fee to the secretary of administration, whose decision is final (§ 45-219(d)). Agency examples: the Kansas Highway Patrol lists $5.00 per crash report and $2.00 per witness statement; Kansas.gov’s KHP download site charges a fee it does not state up front; Wichita police charge $16.00 per online report; Overland Park police offer a free download. KDOT says it charges nothing for the first one hundred pages of paper copies and will tell you first if fees will exceed $100. The Attorney General’s July 2026 Citizen’s Guide to Open Government says an agency may not charge a flat fee for records unless a statute specifically authorizes it; we found no statute that sets the KHP or local crash report fees, so ask the agency how its fee was set if it matters to you.

When the report is ready

KHP: allow 30 business days

An officer who investigates a crash with injury or death or apparent total property damage of $1,000 or more must forward a written report to KDOT within 10 days after the investigation; electronic submission satisfies the law (K.S.A. 8-1611(a), (c)). KDOT’s Kansas Crash Data System went live on April 27, 2026, and KDOT says crash report submission through the older Kansas Law Enforcement Reporting (KLER) portal will be discontinued on December 31, 2027. Getting a copy: the Kansas Open Records Act requires an agency to act on a request as soon as possible and no later than the end of the third business day after receiving it; if it does not give access at once, it must explain the delay and give the earliest time and date the record will be available (K.S.A. 45-218(d)). The Attorney General’s guide says that means a response within three business days, not necessarily the records. KHP’s portal FAQ says to allow 30 business days because of the volume of requests, while its KORA brochure says most records are produced within three business days; the Kansas.gov site says there can be a delay between the end of an investigation and the report reaching KHP Records. Overland Park says its reports are typically online within 10 business days, and hit-and-run investigations may take up to 30 business days. Retention: the Kansas.gov site says retention policies decide how long reports stay online, and holds KHP reports from May 1, 2013 on. We found no statute setting a retention period for crash reports as such. Kansas’s records preservation law bars state agencies and counties (so the Highway Patrol and sheriffs) from destroying records before the periods in retention schedules approved by the State Records Board, while for cities and other local agencies those schedules are only recommendations (K.S.A. 45-403, 45-404(b)); we did not check what period the schedules set for crash reports.

Who can get a copy

Anyone; reports are not confidential

Officers’ crash reports forwarded to KDOT, and the information in them, “shall not be privileged or held confidential” (K.S.A. 8-1611(b)), and under the Kansas Open Records Act all public records are open for inspection by any person unless the Act provides otherwise (K.S.A. 45-216(a), 45-218(a)); the Attorney General’s guide says anyone may request a record and no special relationship to it is needed. The Act’s criminal investigation records exemption does not reach records about violations of traffic law other than vehicular homicide (K.S.A. 45-217(e)(2)), though body camera and vehicle camera video is treated as a criminal investigation record (see our accident video page). KHP says its Records department answers requests from attorneys, courts, insurance companies, the public and other agencies. An agency may require a written request, proof of identity, and, where names and addresses are involved, a written certification that you will not use any list of names or addresses from the records to sell property or services (K.S.A. 45-220(b), (c), 45-230); the Kansas.gov and Overland Park download pages both require that certification. Parts of a report may be redacted, for example to protect minors, according to the Kansas.gov site, and Overland Park’s download asks for a driver’s full legal name and the case number.

What to do now

1. 1

   Report it if no officer came

   If anyone is hurt or killed, damage looks like $1,000 or more, or the other people cannot take your information, report the crash at once to the nearest police office. After hitting an unattended car or property, leave a note and notify police without unnecessary delay.

2. 2

   Get the agency and case number

   Ask the officer which agency took the report and for the case number. KHP’s 10-digit case number is usually on the Crash Information Exchange Form.

3. 3

   Order the report in writing

   For a Highway Patrol crash use KHP’s Records Portal ($5.00 per crash report) or the Kansas.gov download site; otherwise ask the city or county agency that responded.

4. 4

   Ask for photos and statements too

   KHP sells witness statements for $2.00 each and takes requests for photos. Overland Park routes photos, witness statements and traffic camera footage to its open records portal.

Frequently asked questions