How to get a car accident report in Minnesota

Where to get the report

• Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS), Department of Public Safety $5 on form PS2503, in person or mail

  Officers must submit their crash reports to the commissioner of public safety within ten days after the crash (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 8(a)), and the commissioner must disclose the report, on written request, to the people listed in the eligibility section (subd. 13(a)(1)). Complete the Minnesota Crash Record Request (form PS2503, revised 06/2026). It asks you to check the box for your role (driver, passenger, pedestrian, next of kin, owner of damaged property, owner of vehicle, parent or guardian, insurance representative or legal representative, with the client’s name), and for the law enforcement case number, the crash location, county and date, and the names, license numbers, dates of birth, VINs and plates of the people involved, as far as you know them; DVS says a request without enough crash information cannot be completed and a request without an authorized requester’s signature will not be processed. The fee is $5.00 for each copy, by check or money order payable to DVS when you mail it. In person: the DVS Downtown Saint Paul Exam Station, Town Square Building (street level), 445 Minnesota St., St. Paul, MN 55101-5190, with a driver’s license, government-issued ID card or notarized signature. By mail: Driver and Vehicle Services, Attn: Records Unit, 445 Minnesota St., Suite 161, St. Paul, MN 55101-5161, with a legible copy of your driver’s license or government ID, or a notarized signature. For a fatal crash, the next of kin, surviving spouse or estate’s legal representative must include proof of death, such as a death certificate, obituary or memorial card. Minnesota State Patrol: the Patrol’s records center says its crash reports must be requested from Driver and Vehicle Services.

  Official page

• Full-service deputy registrar office $5 at a full-service deputy registrar

  A full-service provider (a full-service deputy registrar office) may also disclose crash reports to eligible requesters and must charge the same $5 fee, keeping the remainder after sending 50 cents to the state (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 13(a)(1), (e)). DVS says reports can be obtained at a full-service deputy registrar office and links an office finder; bring form PS2503 and a driver’s license, government ID or notarized signature, as the form requires in an office. The commissioner must monitor and audit how full-service providers furnish these records (subd. 20).

  Official page

• City police or sheriff that responded Ask the agency; copy costs vary

  Any law enforcement agency must also disclose the crash report to the same eligible people on written request (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 13(a)(1)), so you can ask the city police department or sheriff’s office that worked the crash. The $5 fee in the statute is charged by the commissioner and full-service providers (subd. 13(e)); the Data Practices Office says a local law enforcement agency charges for copies under the Data Practices Act instead: for a member of the public, the actual cost of searching, retrieving and copying, or no more than 25 cents a page for 100 or fewer black and white pages (Minn. Stat. § 13.03, subd. 3(c)); for a person who is the subject of the data, only the actual cost of making and certifying the copies (§ 13.04, subd. 3). Example, Minneapolis Police Department only: it provides accident reports to authorized people through an online accident request form, suggests you contact its Records Information Unit first to make sure the report is available, and says it does not charge for individual accident reports; the unit is in the Minneapolis Public Service Building, 505 Fourth Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55415, 612-673-2961.

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When you must report a crash in Minnesota

Injury or death: call police at once

Tell police right away if anyone is hurt or killed: the driver of a vehicle in a collision resulting in bodily injury to or death of another must, after meeting the other duties in the section and by the quickest means of communication, notify the local police department if the collision is within a city, a State Patrol officer if it is on a trunk highway, or the county sheriff’s office (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 6). It is a defense to that charge, and to the stop-and-remain charges, that you left to take someone with an immediately demonstrable injury for emergency care, if you then notify law enforcement as soon as reasonably feasible after the care has begun (subd. 15). Stop and stay: after any collision, stop immediately at or as close to the scene as possible without unnecessarily obstructing traffic and reasonably investigate what you struck; if you know or have reason to know someone was hurt or killed, or a vehicle driven or attended by someone was damaged, remain until you have given the required information (subds. 1, 2). Exchange: in a collision you know or have reason to know caused injury or death, or damage to a vehicle driven or attended by another, give your name, date of birth, mailing address or email address, and the plate number of the vehicle you are driving; show your license to an officer at the scene or one investigating, on request and if available; and give reasonable assistance to anyone injured. If not given at the scene, you must within 72 hours, on request from anyone involved or an investigating officer, give the name and address of your liability insurer and its local agent (subd. 3). Unattended vehicle: stop, investigate, and then either find and tell its driver or owner the name and address of the driver and registered owner of the vehicle that hit it, report the same information to a peace officer, or leave a written notice with those names and addresses in a conspicuous place in or secured to the struck vehicle (subd. 4). Fixtures: if the collision damaged only fixtures legally on or next to a highway, take reasonable steps to find and notify the owner with your name, address and plate number, show your license on request, and report the same information to a peace officer (subd. 5). Damage only: we found no Minnesota statute that requires a driver to call police for a crash that damages only vehicles; the dollar threshold for a driver report was in subdivision 7, which was repealed effective July 1, 2021. Cities may have their own ordinances, which we did not survey. An officer’s report is required when an officer investigates a crash on a street, highway, sidewalk, shoulder, shared use path or other public right-of-way that involves a death, an injury for which the person immediately receives medical treatment, disabling damage requiring a tow, or damage to fixtures, infrastructure or other property alongside or on a highway (subd. 8(b)); “disabling damage” means damage that keeps a vehicle from leaving in its usual manner in daylight after simple repairs, and does not include, for example, tire, headlamp or taillight damage alone (subd. 19(b)). Penalties: for a driver who did not cause the collision, violating the stop-and-remain duty (subd. 1) or the police notice duty (subd. 6) is a felony with up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both if someone died; a felony with up to two years, up to $4,000, or both for great bodily harm; and up to 364 days, up to $3,000, or both for substantial bodily harm (subd. 14(a)). Any driver in a collision resulting in bodily harm who violates subdivision 1 or 6 may be sentenced to up to 364 days, a fine of up to $3,000, or both (subd. 14(b)). Violating the information, fixture, attended-vehicle or unattended-vehicle duties is a misdemeanor (subd. 14(c) to (e)), and the commissioner may suspend the license of a driver who willfully fails, refuses or neglects to make a report the section requires (subd. 14a).

What the report costs

$5 from DVS; local agencies vary

The statute sets the state fee: the commissioner of public safety or a full-service provider must charge an authorized requester a $5 fee for a copy of an accident report (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 13(e)), and DVS’s page and form PS2503 both say $5 per copy. Commercial users, meaning a user who in one location asks for data in more than five accident reports a month unless the use is not commercial, pay a fee of no more than 50 cents per record for response or incident data (subd. 13(f)). A city or county police agency charges under the Data Practices Act rather than the $5 fee: actual costs, or no more than 25 cents a page for 100 or fewer black and white letter or legal pages, with no charge for separating public from not public data (§ 13.03, subd. 3(c)), and only the cost of making and certifying copies for data about you (§ 13.04, subd. 3). Inspecting public data is free (§ 13.03, subd. 3(a)). Example, Minneapolis Police Department only: no charge for individual accident reports.

When the report is ready

About 3 weeks after the crash

The investigating officer must submit the report to the commissioner of public safety within ten days after the crash, and an agency must tell the commissioner the basic circumstances of a fatal crash within two business days after the fatality is identified (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 8(a)). DVS says reports are available three weeks after the incident. A local agency answering a request from a person who is the subject of the data must comply immediately if possible, or within ten days excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays (§ 13.04, subd. 3). We found no official statement of how long DPS keeps crash reports.

Who can get a copy

Parties, their lawyers and insurers

Crash reports are for the use of the commissioner and government agencies for accident analysis, except that on written request the commissioner, a full-service provider or any law enforcement agency must disclose the officer’s report to: (i) any individual involved in the crash, the representative of the individual’s estate, the surviving spouse, one or more surviving next of kin, or a trustee appointed under § 573.02; (ii) any other person injured in person, property or means of support, or who has other pecuniary loss because of the crash; (iii) legal counsel for anyone in (i) or (ii); (iv) a representative of the insurer of anyone in (i) or (ii); and (v) a city or county attorney, or an attorney for the state in an implied consent action, prosecuting a traffic or criminal offense that results from the crash investigation (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 13(a)(1)). Disclosing information from a crash report except as the law allows is a misdemeanor (subd. 13(d)). DVS requires an authorized requester’s signature, defines one as a person involved in the crash who is recorded on the police report (such as a driver, passenger, owner of damaged property, owner of a vehicle or pedestrian), and says an insurer or attorney may get a copy with a signed release from a party to the crash. What the public can get: the Data Practices Office says the report itself is not public, except for the request for service and response or incident data the law makes public (§ 13.82, subds. 3, 6), such as the date, time and place, a brief factual reconstruction, the names and addresses of witnesses and of victims or casualties unless their identities are protected, the dates of birth of the parties, seat belt use, each driver’s alcohol concentration, and whether a body camera was used (§ 13.82, subd. 6). If an agency keeps crash information in its own police or incident reports, rather than only the state report, those are classified under § 13.82. In court: crash reports are not discoverable and may not be used as evidence in any civil or criminal trial arising from the crash, though the commissioner must give a certificate on whether a report was made, and the officer may still testify to facts within the officer’s knowledge (§ 169.09, subd. 13(b), (c)).

What to do now

1. 1

   Call police at once if anyone is hurt

   Injury or death: notify city police, the State Patrol on a trunk highway, or the sheriff, by the quickest means. Give your name, date of birth, address and plate number.

2. 2

   Get the case number at the scene

   Form PS2503 asks for the law enforcement case number, crash date, county and location; a request without enough information cannot be completed.

3. 3

   Request the report after three weeks

   Send form PS2503 with $5 to DVS, or take it to DVS in St. Paul or a full-service deputy registrar office, or ask the police agency that responded.

4. 4

   Request video separately, now

   Video is not part of the crash report. Send a data practices request to the agency today, and post the crash on the bounty board for dashcam and business camera footage.

Frequently asked questions