How to get a car accident report in North Carolina

Where to get the report

• NCDMV Crash Reports Unit (certified copy) $6.50 certified, by mail or in person

  NCDMV keeps the officer reports for every agency and is the only source of a certified copy: since January 1, 2013, only certified crash reports are available from the Division, and the State Highway Patrol says certified crash reports must be obtained from NCDMV under G.S. 20-42. Fill out form TR-67A, Request for Motor Vehicle Information (Crash Reports), revised July 1, 2024 (it is not fillable, so print it), with the driver’s name and driver license number, the crash date and county, your identification, and which box applies: a DPPA permissible use (for an unredacted copy), or no permissible use, or “a party involved in the crash without a DPPA Permissible Use” (for a redacted copy). Sign it. The fee is $6.50 (G.S. 20-42(b); the form says “currently $6.50”). By mail, send it with a signed check or money order payable to NCDMV (no cash by mail) to Traffic Records Branch, Crash Reports Unit, 3106 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27697-3106; NCDMV asks you to allow 10 business days from receipt. In person, bring the form and payment to Raleigh Central Services/License Plate Agency, 4121 New Bern Ave., Raleigh, NC 27616 (use the door marked Vehicle Registration, not Driver License), or Huntersville License Plate Agency, 12101 Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road, Huntersville, NC 28078; requests for five records or fewer are filled on the spot. NCDMV says individuals cannot order a crash report online; only businesses and organizations based in or licensed in North Carolina, such as insurers, law offices and private investigators, may order online through myNCDMV. Crash Reports Unit: 919-861-3068.

  Official page

• N.C. State Highway Patrol (online, uncertified) Online search in 5 to 7 business days

  For a crash a trooper investigated, the Highway Patrol’s Collision Reports search returns the DMV-349 report for crashes since May 16, 2013, and says reports are normally entered within 5 to 7 business days. Search by report number, a last name on the report (with the crash date and county), driver’s license number or plate number, and accept the DMV-349 Terms of Use, which require you to certify under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act and G.S. 20-43.1 that you want it for your own record or have a listed permissible use. The site states that this copy is NOT a certified crash report; we found no fee stated on the search pages. The search covers only Highway Patrol crashes. For other Highway Patrol records, the Patrol takes public records requests online or by mail to N.C. State Highway Patrol, Public Information Office, 4231 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-4231.

  Official page

• City police or sheriff that responded Ask the agency; process varies

  Inside a city or town, the city police investigate; outside, it may be the Highway Patrol, the sheriff or other rural police (G.S. 20-166.1(a)). The investigating officer must write the report within 24 hours, and a report by an officer who is not a trooper goes to the local agency for the area, which must forward it to NCDMV within 10 days (G.S. 20-166.1(e)). Nothing in the statute stops a local agency from giving the public the report or its public portions, so you can ask the agency that responded; each agency sets its own process and any fee. Example, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police only: CMPD gives crash reports to the drivers, passengers and registered owners of the vehicles involved, after you complete its Request for Motor Vehicle Crash Report Form and certify under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act; you can pick it up with a government-issued photo ID at the records desk at CMPD headquarters, 601 E. Trade St., Charlotte, or a CMPD division office, or get it through LexisNexis, which CMPD links for its reports. CMPD’s page does not list a fee.

  Official page

When you must report a crash in North Carolina

Injury or $1,000+: notify police now

A “reportable crash” is one involving a motor vehicle that results in the death or injury of a person, total property damage of $1,000 or more, or property damage of any amount to a vehicle seized under G.S. 20-28.3 (G.S. 20-4.01(33b); the Chapter treats “collision,” “accident” and “crash” as the same word, G.S. 20-4.01(4c)). The driver of a vehicle involved in a reportable crash must immediately, by the quickest means of communication, notify the appropriate law enforcement agency: the city or town police department if the crash happened inside a city or town, otherwise the State Highway Patrol, the sheriff’s office or other qualified rural police of the county (G.S. 20-166.1(a)). That agency must investigate the crash (G.S. 20-166.1(e)). A violation of G.S. 20-166.1 is a misdemeanor of the class set in G.S. 20-176 (G.S. 20-166.1(k)), which is a Class 2 misdemeanor unless a specific penalty applies (G.S. 20-176(c)). Stopping and staying are separate duties. In a crash the driver knows or reasonably should know caused serious bodily injury or death, the driver must stop immediately and remain with the vehicle at the scene until an officer completes the investigation or authorizes the driver to leave and the vehicle to be removed, unless remaining puts someone at significant risk of injury; the driver may leave only to call police or medical help or to get out of danger, and must return with the vehicle within a reasonable time; a willful violation is a Class F felony (G.S. 20-166(a)). The same stop-and-remain rule applies to a crash causing any injury, and a willful violation is a Class H felony (G.S. 20-166(a1)). In those crashes the driver must also give the person struck and the driver or occupants of any vehicle hit their name, address, driver’s license number and license plate number, and render reasonable assistance to anyone injured, including calling for medical help when it is apparent it is needed or is requested; a violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor (G.S. 20-166(b)). In a property-damage-only crash the driver must stop immediately, and if it is a reportable crash must remain until an officer completes the investigation or authorizes leaving; a willful violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor (G.S. 20-166(c)). The driver must give the same name, address, license and plate information to the other drivers or occupants and to anyone whose property is damaged (G.S. 20-166(c1)). If you hit a parked or unattended vehicle and cannot readily find its owner, give that information to the nearest available peace officer, or immediately place a written note with it in a conspicuous place on or in the damaged vehicle and then, within 48 hours, report the collision to the owner (G.S. 20-166(c1)). That report to the owner is required whether or not the crash is reportable; it may be oral or written, must be made within 48 hours, and must include the time, date and place of the crash, your name, address and driver’s license number, and your plate number; a written report not handed to the owner at the scene must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, with a copy to the Division of Motor Vehicles (G.S. 20-166.1(c)). If you damage a guardrail, utility pole or other fixed object owned by the Department of Transportation, a public utility or another public service corporation and cannot report at the scene, give the information to the nearest peace officer or mail a written report by certified mail, return receipt requested, to NCDMV within five days (G.S. 20-166(c1)). Move-the-vehicle rule: if a crash happens on a main lane, ramp, shoulder, median or adjacent area of a highway, no one was injured or killed (or the drivers did not know or have reason to know of it), and each vehicle can be normally and safely driven (it does not need towing and can run under its own power in its usual manner without more damage or hazard), each vehicle must be moved as soon as possible out of the travel lane onto the shoulder or to a designated accident investigation site to finish these duties (G.S. 20-166(c2)). A passenger who knows or reasonably should know the vehicle was in a crash may not willfully leave the scene by driving a vehicle involved in it until an officer completes the investigation or authorizes leaving, with the same exceptions and duty to return; a willful violation is a Class H felony in a serious-injury or death crash and a Class 1 misdemeanor in a reportable property-damage crash. The passenger must also give the person struck or the other driver or occupants the passenger’s name, address, driver’s license number and the plate number of the vehicle, if possible, and render reasonable assistance to anyone injured; a violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor (G.S. 20-166.2).

The driver report you may have to file

No general DMV report; 2 narrow cases

North Carolina does not require drivers to file their own crash report with NCDMV; the former driver-report subsection, G.S. 20-166.1(d), was repealed by Session Laws 1995, c. 191, s. 2. The police officer’s report is the record. Two narrow written reports remain. First, after hitting an unattended vehicle, a written report to its owner that is not handed over at the scene must go by certified mail, return receipt requested, and a copy must be sent to NCDMV (G.S. 20-166.1(c)). Second, after damaging a fixed object owned by the Department of Transportation, a public utility or another public service corporation when report cannot readily be made at the scene, the driver may either tell the nearest peace officer or mail a written report by U.S. certified mail, return receipt requested, to NCDMV within five days of the collision (G.S. 20-166(c1)). NCDMV may also require a driver in a reportable crash to furnish proof of financial responsibility (insurance) when it asks (G.S. 20-166.1(b)). A crash report under G.S. 20-166.1 made by anyone other than a law enforcement officer or a Civilian Traffic Investigator is for NCDMV’s use and cannot be used as evidence or for any other purpose in a civil or criminal trial arising from the crash, and a report by anyone other than a law enforcement officer or a medical examiner is not a public record (G.S. 20-166.1(i)).

What the report costs

$6.50 certified (NCDMV); local varies

G.S. 20-42(b) sets the fee for a certified copy of an accident report under G.S. 20-166.1 at $6.50 (other certified DMV documents cost $16.75), and form TR-67A lists the crash report cost as “currently $6.50.” The certification fee does not apply to copies furnished for official use to judicial, federal, state or local officials. The Highway Patrol’s online copy is uncertified and we found no fee stated on its search pages. A local police department or sheriff sets its own process; for an uncertified copy the Public Records Act limits the charge to the agency’s actual cost of making the copy unless another law provides otherwise, with a possible special service charge for requests needing extensive staff or technology time (G.S. 132-6.2(b)). An online vendor an agency uses may add its own charge, so check the agency’s page. NCDMV must adjust this fee for inflation every four years under G.S. 20-4.02 (the next adjustment is due July 1, 2028), and the official statute text read $5.00 and later $5.50 before the current $6.50, so older agency and law-firm pages that quote $5.00 or $5.50 are out of date; the current statute and form say $6.50.

When the report is ready

SHP online 5 to 7 days; DMV mail 10

The investigating officer must write the report within 24 hours of the crash, a trooper forwards it to NCDMV, and a local agency that receives an officer’s report must send it to NCDMV within 10 days (G.S. 20-166.1(e)). The Highway Patrol says its reports are normally entered into its online collision search within 5 to 7 business days. NCDMV asks you to allow 10 business days from receipt for a mail request, and fills in-person requests of five records or fewer immediately. If an injured person dies within 12 months and the death was not in the original report, the officer must file a supplemental report (G.S. 20-166.1(e)). The Highway Patrol’s online search reaches back to crashes on or after May 16, 2013; we found no official statement of how long NCDMV or local agencies keep crash reports.

Who can get a copy

Public record; DMV redacts for people

Two statutes point different ways here. G.S. 20-166.1(i) says crash reports made by law enforcement officers and medical examiners are public records open to inspection by the general public at all reasonable times, and that NCDMV must give a certified copy to any member of the public who requests it and pays the G.S. 20-42 fee; it says nothing about redaction. G.S. 20-43.1(a) says NCDMV shall disclose personal information in motor vehicle records in accordance with the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. NCDMV follows the second: form TR-67A says crash reports are among the records containing confidential personal information that are not available to the public and are disclosed only under the DPPA, and NCDMV says an individual, including a person involved in the crash, receives a redacted copy with details such as names or addresses hidden, and only a business or organization with a DPPA permissible use (on form TR-67A: government functions, vehicle safety matters, court proceedings and investigation in anticipation of litigation, insurers’ claims work, towing notice, and licensed private investigators for one of those uses) gets the unredacted report. Local agencies may set narrower rules; for example, CMPD releases crash reports to drivers, passengers and registered owners. The name and address of a minor school bus passenger may be disclosed only to the local board of education, the State Board of Education, the child’s parent or guardian, an insurer investigating a claim, an attorney for a person involved, and investigating officers (G.S. 20-166.1(h)(3)). At the request of a driver or the insurer the driver identified, an officer may send the insurer an uncertified copy once shown that a certified copy has been requested from NCDMV and the fee paid (G.S. 20-166.1(e)). Because the report is a public record, its use in a criminal investigation does not change that status (G.S. 132-1.4(f)).

What to do now

1. 1

   Notify police and stay until the officer lets you go

   For any injury, death or $1,000 or more in total damage, call the city police or, outside a city, the Highway Patrol or sheriff right away. If no one is hurt and the cars still drive, move them out of the travel lane first.

2. 2

   Get the report number from the officer

   The officer writes the DMV-349 within 24 hours. With the report number, driver name or plate you can find a Highway Patrol report online in about 5 to 7 business days.

3. 3

   Order the certified copy from NCDMV

   Mail form TR-67A with a $6.50 check or money order payable to NCDMV, or take it to the Raleigh or Huntersville license plate agency. A person in the crash receives a redacted copy.

4. 4

   Ask for police video separately

   Body camera and dashcam video is not part of the crash report and is not a public record in North Carolina. Send a written disclosure request to the head of the agency now, then petition the superior court if you need a copy.

Frequently asked questions