How to get a car accident report in Maine

Where to get the report

• Maine State Police crash database (Maine Crash Reporting Online Search & Ordering Service) Search free; $10 per report online

  The investigating officer of every reportable accident must send an electronic report or the original written report to the Chief of the State Police within 5 days from the time of notification (29-A M.R.S. §2251(4)(B)), so the State Police database holds reportable crashes worked by city police, sheriffs and troopers alike. The online service, run for the Maine State Police Traffic Division, lets you search by name, date of birth, crash location, crash date or investigating agency; you need the name and date of birth of an individual on the report and a Mastercard, Visa or Discover card (or an InforME subscription). Searching is free and you are not charged if nothing matches; “Each report costs $10.00,” and the reports “will be sent to you via email. Most reports will be sent within two hours of your order.” The service’s FAQ puts it as “within 24 hours of the search” if the information is correct and the report is in the database, and says a report not yet there may not have been submitted yet: “Try again in a few days. Reports are downloaded daily.” What you get is the State of Maine Traffic Crash Report; the service warns that the investigating agency may hold other reports, “officer narratives, witness statements, photographs or other recordings,” and that you should contact that agency about them. Questions: Maine State Police Traffic Division, (207) 624-8944, mcrs_response@maine.gov. ATV and snowmobile crashes handled by the Maine Warden Service are not in this database; the FAQ refers you to the Warden Service at (207) 287-2766.

  Official page

• Maine State Police Traffic Division (crashes before 2003) Manual search $10, non-refundable

  Crashes before 2003 may not be in the online database. For those, the service takes a manual search request: “The fee to submit a manual search is $10.00, this fee is non refundable,” and a matching report is sent by regular mail, fax or email. The FAQ says 1976 through 2002 reports are on microfilm, available on written request with payment to the Maine State Police, Traffic Division, State House Station #20, Augusta, Maine 04333-0020, or by emailing the Traffic Division and paying by card through InforME, and that if your information is correct you “may receive the crash report in five days or less”; if not, call (207) 624-8944. The FAQ also says that if the officer did not have an in-car printer, you should ask the officer or the investigating agency for the Driver Report Form, which lists driver, vehicle, crash location and investigating agency information. Corrections: the State Police say only the investigating officer can change a report, so contact that officer.

  Official page

• City or town police department or county sheriff that responded Ask the agency; fees and rules vary

  For a crash below the reporting threshold, the State Police FAQ says to “contact the department called to the scene. An incident report should be on file at that office.” The responding agency is also where you ask for its own incident report, narrative, photographs and supplements. No statute sets a local fee for these; local records are public records requests under the Freedom of Access Act, which caps copying at 10 cents a page for a standard black and white page, bars a per-page fee for records provided electronically, and allows up to $25 an hour for search, retrieval and compiling (including redaction) after the first 2 hours of staff time, which are free (1 M.R.S. §408-A(8)). Examples from official local pages: the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says vehicle crash reports “may take up to five days to complete and can also be ordered online,” charges $0.10 per page for incident and accident reports, $2.00 for each color photo printed on paper and $6.00 for media such as a DVD, takes cash, money order or check only, and says vehicle accident reconstruction reports may take up to six months; the Town of Cumberland Police charge no fee for involved parties who are Cumberland residents and a $10 fee to all other requesters, including non-involved parties, insurance companies and non-residents. Other agencies set their own fees, so ask the one that worked your crash.

  Official page

• Maine State Police Investigative Records (trooper incident investigation reports) Request form; may be withheld by law

  A trooper’s incident investigation report and its attachments are separate from the crash report. The State Police say “police investigative and intelligence records are not generally considered public records under Maine law,” and their release is restricted under Title 16, chapter 9. Request them with the Incident Investigation Report Request Form, sent to Maine Department of Public Safety, Attn: Maine State Police, Records Management Services, 45 Commerce Drive, Suite 1, 42 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0042; phone (207) 624-7277, fax (207) 287-3422. The form warns that the State Police “may be prohibited by law from releasing to you the report you have requested” or may redact or exclude parts (citing 1 M.R.S. §402(3)(A) and 16 M.R.S. §804). Fees follow the Department of Public Safety’s Uniform Public Records Request Fee Schedule (effective 08 November 2021): no fee for copies provided electronically, $0.10 a page for paper copies of paper records, $25 an hour after two free hours of staff time, and no fee if the total is $2.00 or less; checks go to “Treasurer, State of Maine.”

  Official page

When you must report a crash in Maine

Injury/death/$2,000+: tell police now

The reporting duty is 29-A M.R.S. §2251. A “reportable accident” is “an accident on a public way or a place where public traffic may reasonably be anticipated, resulting in bodily injury or death to a person or apparent property damage of $2,000 or more,” and apparent damage “must be based upon the market value of the necessary repairs and may not be limited to the current value of the vehicle or property” (§2251(1)). The $2,000 figure took effect October 25, 2023 (PL 2023, c. 27, LD 552); before that it was $1,000, and the Bureau of Insurance says reportability follows the threshold in force on the crash date (Bulletin 479, June 14, 2024). A reportable accident “must be reported immediately by the quickest means of communication” to a state police officer or the nearest State Police field office, the sheriff’s office or a deputy sheriff in the county, or the police department or an officer of the town or city where it happened (§2251(2)). The report must be made by the operator of an involved vehicle, a person acting for the operator, or, if the operator is unknown, an owner of an involved vehicle who knows of the accident (§2251(2)). Snowmobile operators, and ATV operators whose machine is not registered for highway use, are exempt (§2251(11)). Penalties: knowingly failing to make a required report within the time required is a Class E crime, as is knowingly failing to give a correct name and address to an officer at the scene or failing to produce the vehicle, or return it to the scene if it runs, when the investigating officer asks (§2251(8)); a Class E crime carries up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 unless another statute says otherwise (17-A M.R.S. §1604(1)(E), §1704(5)). The Secretary of State may also suspend or revoke the license and registration of a person who fails to report or fails to give the information the Secretary of State requires (§2251(10)). The absence of notice to a police agency with jurisdiction is prima facie evidence of failure to report (§2251(9)). At the scene, whatever the damage: in a crash anywhere that injures or kills a person, stop at or as close as possible to the scene, remain, give your name and address and your vehicle’s registration number, let the other side examine your license on request if it is available, show evidence of insurance on request, and give reasonable assistance to an injured person (§2252); failing to do so is a Class D crime, and a Class C crime if done intentionally, knowingly or recklessly when the crash caused serious bodily injury or death, while failing only to show insurance is a traffic infraction (§2252(4), (5)). A crash that damages an attended vehicle carries the same duty to stop and exchange that information (§2253), and one that damages an unattended vehicle requires you to stop, then notify its owner or operator or leave in a conspicuous place on it your name and address, your registration number and a statement of the circumstances, and show evidence of insurance if its owner or operator asks (§2254); failing either duty is a Class E crime, except that failing only to show insurance is a traffic infraction (§2253(3), §2254(3)). If you damage other property, including hitting a dog, cat or livestock, take reasonable steps to notify the owner, and if an animal is hurt or killed, the owner cannot be found and no §2251 report is required, take reasonable steps to report it immediately to a law enforcement officer or the local animal control officer (§2255).

What the report costs

$10 online; local fees vary

The State Police crash database charges $10.00 per report ordered online, with free searching, and $10.00, non-refundable, to submit a manual search for an older report. The statute lets the Chief of the State Police furnish a copy of the investigating officer’s report “at the expense of the person making the request” and says that cost “is not subject to the limitations of Title 1, section 408-A” (29-A M.R.S. §2251(7)), so the Freedom of Access Act fee caps do not limit the crash report price. Other records follow the Act: copying is capped at 10 cents a page for a standard black and white page, no per-page fee may be charged for electronic copies, the first 2 hours of staff time are free and after that the fee is not more than $25 an hour, and the agency must tell you before going ahead if its estimate is over $50 and may require payment in advance if it is over $100 (1 M.R.S. §408-A(8) to (10)). Local fees for an agency’s own copy vary: the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office charges $0.10 per page for incident and accident reports, and the Town of Cumberland Police charge involved Cumberland residents nothing and other requesters $10 (examples from their official pages).

When the report is ready

Officer files within 5 days

The investigating officer must transmit the report to the Chief of the State Police “Within 5 days from the time of notification of the accident” (29-A M.R.S. §2251(4)(B)), and every reported accident “must be promptly investigated.” Once it is in the database, the online service says most reports are emailed within two hours of your order, and its FAQ says within 24 hours of the search if your information is correct; if your crash is not found, it may not have been submitted yet, and the database is updated daily. A manual microfilm search may take five days or less. Locally, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and the Town of Cumberland Police both say vehicle crash reports may take up to five days to complete, and the Sheriff’s Office says reconstruction reports may take up to six months. Retention: the online database covers crashes from January 1, 2003, and 1976 through 2002 reports are on microfilm, per the State Police FAQ. Under the State Archives’ local government schedules, local agencies keep their copies of Traffic Division accident records 15 years after a fatal crash and 25 years after a nonfatal one (series LG21.1a and LG21.1b, Section C, which the Archives says is the 2018 version pending revision). We found no stated retention period for the State Police’s own database.

Who can get a copy

Anyone may buy it from State Police

The State Police crash report FAQ answers “Who can get a copy of a crash report?” with “Anyone who would like to purchase the report can do so,” and the online search asks for the name and date of birth of a person on the report. The statute is permissive: notwithstanding the confidentiality rule for the accident report database, the Chief of the State Police “may disclose the date, time and location of the accident and the names and addresses of operators, owners, injured persons, witnesses and the investigating officer,” and “On written request, the chief may furnish a photocopy of the investigating officer’s report” (29-A M.R.S. §2251(7)). Data in the State Police accident report database itself are split: personally identifying data (names, addresses, dates of birth, license, plate and policy numbers, free-text fields) are confidential, except that a plate number may be disclosed to a person who signs an affidavit not to use it to identify or contact anyone or to pass it on, and the data may go to the Secretary of State for driver’s license suspension decisions (16 M.R.S. §805-A(1)(F)); nonpersonally identifying data are not confidential (§2251(7-A), wording last amended by PL 2025, c. 659, effective July 29, 2026). A trooper’s separate investigation report may be withheld or redacted under the intelligence and investigative record law (16 M.R.S. §804). One limit for court: the report, statements in it and the driver’s notice “may not be admitted in evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of the accident,” except to prove compliance with the reporting law (§2251(7)). We found no waiting period before release.

What to do now

1. 1

   Call police from the scene

   If anyone is hurt or killed, or damage looks like $2,000 or more in repairs, report it immediately to the State Police, the sheriff or the local police (§2251(2)).

2. 2

   Ask the officer for the Driver Report Form

   It lists the drivers, vehicles, location and investigating agency. If the officer cannot print it, ask the officer or the agency for that information.

3. 3

   Buy the crash report online

   Search the State Police crash database with the name and date of birth of someone on the report. Searching is free and each report is $10; check again in a few days if it is not there yet.

4. 4

   Ask the responding agency for the rest

   Narratives, photos, witness statements and recordings stay with the agency that worked the crash. Send that agency a Freedom of Access Act request.

Frequently asked questions