How to get a car accident report in Rhode Island

Where to get the report

• Rhode Island State Police (crashes worked by troopers) BuyCrash online, or $15 by mail

  The State Police say Statewide Uniform Crash Reports “can be obtained online or by U.S. Mail,” and that there is a fee under R.I. Gen. Laws §42-28-37. Online: through www.BuyCrash.com, with a major credit card or a prepaid account; buying several reports at once takes a subscriber (Business Account) login. The State Police page does not state the online price. By mail: send a stamped, self-addressed envelope with a $15 check or money order payable to “The State of Rhode Island” to Rhode Island State Police: Accident Bureau, 311 Danielson Pike, North Scituate, RI 02857, and include the driver’s name, the date of the crash and the accident report number; the trooper gives you that number before you leave the scene. Mail requests are processed in the order received. The statute: “The state police, upon written request, shall furnish to any person involved in an accident or the person’s legal representative a copy of the official state police report of the investigation of the accident. A fee of fifteen dollars ($15.00) shall accompany each written request” (§42-28-37). Fatal crash reports “must be obtained through the Rhode Island State Police Accident Bureau.”

  Official page

• Department of Public Safety Legal Office (other State Police records) Written request; APRA fees apply

  For other State Police records about your crash, the State Police say individuals seeking their own reports may send a written request describing the records; insurers and attorneys should write on letterhead stating their involvement or the party they represent. Send it by fax to (401) 444-1105, email to records@risp.gov, mail to the RI Department of Public Safety Legal Office, 311 Danielson Pike, North Scituate, RI 02857, or in person; phone (401) 764-0537. The Department of Public Safety regulation says crash reports that have not been posted to the online service are reviewed by Legal Counsel to decide whether an investigation is ongoing or charges are pending, and non-public information is redacted, but that the report “shall be provided to individuals involved in the accident or their legal representation regardless of the status of the investigation” (270-RICR-40-00-1, §1.6(B)). Copies of other records cost fifteen cents a page, the first hour of search and retrieval is free and each later hour is $15.00, and electronic records cost no more than the reasonable actual cost (§1.8; R.I. Gen. Laws §38-2-4).

  Official page

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

  If a city or town police department worked your crash, get the report from that department. The State Police and every state or municipal police department must use the same uniform statewide crash report (R.I. Gen. Laws §31-26-16), and the agency must send it electronically to the Department of Transportation within 14 days, and may keep a copy locally (§31-26-9(b)). Fees, channels and hours vary, so check the department’s own page. Examples from official pages: the North Kingstown Police give reports in person at the station with “no charge for those persons who are listed in the accident report,” and also sell them through BuyCrash.com; the Providence Police Records Office ((401) 243-6416) has reports for pickup from 8:15 AM to 2:45 and sells crash reports online to involved parties through LexisNexis Police Reports, without stating a price on that page. A department that denies you a public record must follow the Access to Public Records Act, which caps copies at fifteen cents a page and search and retrieval at $15.00 an hour after a free first hour (§38-2-4).

  Official page

When you must report a crash in Rhode Island

Police at once: injury, car or fixture

Rhode Island ties the duty to call police to the kind of crash, not to a dollar figure. If a crash strikes, injures or kills a person or damages a vehicle that is driven or attended by someone, you must, on request, give your name, address and the registration number of the vehicle you are driving and show your license to the person struck or to the other driver, occupant or attendant; give reasonable assistance to anyone injured; and “immediately, by the quickest means of communication” known or reasonably available, “give notice of the accident to a nearby office of local or state police” (R.I. Gen. Laws §31-26-3(a)). If you hit an unattended vehicle and either vehicle is damaged, stop, then find and tell its operator or owner your name and address and the name and address of the striking vehicle’s owner, or leave a written notice in a conspicuous place on it with those names and addresses and a statement of the circumstances, and immediately notify a nearby office of local or state police (§31-26-4). If the crash damages only fixtures legally on or next to a highway, take reasonable steps to notify the owner or person in charge, show your license on request, and immediately notify local or state police (§31-26-5). Separately, the driver in a crash that injures or kills anyone, or that disables a vehicle (other than one moved by human power) so it cannot be operated normally and safely, must immediately give notice to the nearest office of a duly authorized police authority (§31-26-3.2). In a crash with a person riding a bicycle you must stop, remain, help and notify police as well (§31-26-3.3). Stopping: a driver knowingly involved in a crash that injures or kills anyone, or that damages only a vehicle driven or attended by someone, must stop at or as close to the scene as possible without obstructing traffic more than necessary and remain until the §31-26-3 duties are met (§§31-26-1(a), 31-26-2). Penalties: knowingly failing to stop or comply when someone is injured brings a mandatory license loss of at least one year and up to five years, and up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000, with higher mandatory ranges for serious bodily injury or death (§31-26-1(b) to (d)); failing to stop or comply in a crash that damages only an attended vehicle is a misdemeanor with a fine of $500 to $1,000, and/or a license suspension of up to six months, and/or up to six months in jail (§31-26-2). The State Police’s own advice goes further than the statute: “Call 911 for the police even if there are no injuries,” and if you are blocking a lane and your car still runs, move it to the side of the road. The DMV’s Driver’s Manual says the same: “Report all collisions to the nearest state or local police immediately,” and it lists when “A police report is required”: someone is injured, property damage is over $1,000, you hit an unattended vehicle, or you hit a domesticated animal.

The driver report you may have to file

Statute: DMV in 21 days; call to confirm

The statutes still require a driver report. “The driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to or death of any person or in which the damage to property of any one person, including himself or herself, in excess of one thousand dollars ($1000) is sustained, shall, within twenty-one (21) days after the accident, forward a written report of the accident to the division of motor vehicles, on forms provided by the division” (R.I. Gen. Laws §31-26-6; repeated in §31-26-9(c)). The safety responsibility chapter sets a lower trigger: the operator in any crash in which anyone is killed or injured or damage to the property of any one person, including the operator, is “in excess of five hundred dollars ($500)” must report it in writing to the DMV within 21 days, so the DMV can decide whether a security deposit is required (§31-33-1); and §31-26-9(d) says the DMV “will take action on reported accidents in excess of five hundred dollars ($500)” for financial responsibility compliance. If the driver is physically incapable and is not the owner, the owner must make the report within 21 days after learning of the crash (§§31-26-8, 31-33-1). Penalties on the books: the DMV “shall suspend” the license of a person who fails to report until the report is filed, and a conviction is punished under §31-27-13 (§31-26-11); failure to make the §31-33-1 report carries the fine set in §31-41.1-4, which lists $100.00, plus suspension until the report is filed and for up to 30 more days (§31-33-2); knowingly giving false information in the report can bring a fine of up to $1,000, up to a year in prison, or both (§31-33-3). If no report has been filed, that failure is prima facie evidence that the operator or registered owner was uninsured at the time (§31-26-13(c)). What agencies say now: the North Kingstown Police say that “As of September 1st, 2013 state accident reports are no longer required,” that the DMV “no longer requires motorists to file the form entitled the Motor Vehicle Accident Report,” and that for a crash with bodily injury or damage over $1,000 the police Uniform Crash Report “will now be accepted by DMV in lieu of the State Report”; the Tiverton Police say, without giving a date, that the police report “is accepted by DMV in lieu of the State Accident Report,” that it goes automatically to the Department of Transportation, and that the DMV receives the crash information from it every day. What the DMV itself shows: its forms pages no longer offer a driver accident report (its Motor Vehicle Accident Report, form AR-1, addressed to the DMV Accident Office, was listed on its Accident Forms page in August 2013 and was gone by November 2013, in Internet Archive captures of the DMV’s own site), and its Driver’s Manual tells drivers to report collisions to the police without mentioning a report to the DMV. We found no DMV page, regulation or notice stating that the driver report is no longer required, and no law repealing it: the General Assembly amended §31-26-9 in 2021 and kept the 21-day driver report in subsection (c) (P.L. 2021, ch. 419). Because the statute still says you must file, call the DMV Accident Office at (401) 462-5710 within the 21 days, ask whether it needs a written report from you, and note the date and the name of the person who answered; if it does, file it. Your own report to the DMV is for its confidential use and cannot be used as evidence at a trial arising from the crash (§31-26-13).

What the report costs

RISP $15 by mail; local fees vary

State Police: R.I. Gen. Laws §42-28-37 sets a fee of $15.00 to accompany each written request for the official State Police report, and the State Police charge $15 by mail (check or money order to “The State of Rhode Island”). The State Police page sends online buyers to BuyCrash.com but states no online price, so check the price there before you pay. Local police: no statute sets a crash report fee for city and town departments; it varies. The North Kingstown Police charge nothing to people listed in the report who pick it up at the station (an example from its official page). Other records under the Access to Public Records Act cost no more than fifteen cents a page for copies, nothing for the first hour of search and retrieval and no more than $15.00 an hour after that, and no more than the reasonable actual cost for electronic records; multiple requests to the same agency within 30 days count as one, the agency must give an estimate on request, and all copying and search fees are waived if the agency misses its deadline (unless it is waiting for a payment properly charged) (§§38-2-4, 38-2-7(b)).

When the report is ready

RISP: most in 72 hours; local varies

The State Police say: “In most cases, crash reports are available 72 hours after the report was taken, with the exception of crashes that remain under investigation (which cannot be released until the investigation is completed) and fatal crashes (which must be obtained through the Rhode Island State Police Accident Bureau).” Mail requests are processed in the order received. The Department of Public Safety regulation adds that an involved person or that person’s legal representative must still be given the report regardless of the status of the investigation (270-RICR-40-00-1, §1.6(B)(1)(a)), so if you were involved and are told to wait, cite it and §42-28-37. By law, every police agency must send its electronic report to the Department of Transportation within 14 days of the investigation or of preparing the report (R.I. Gen. Laws §31-26-9(b)); that is the state’s outer deadline for the report to reach the state repository, not a promise of when you can buy it. A local department’s own timing varies; ask it. Retention: the State Police records retention schedule says to retain motor vehicle accident records in its barracks complaint files for three years, and permanently for crashes involving a fatality (series SP1.2(c)); the schedule for city and town police departments also says three years (series LG6.1.2(c)). The Department of State, which publishes these schedules, describes them as standards for the minimum length of storage. We found no official statement of how long the Department of Transportation keeps them.

Who can get a copy

Parties and reps by law; others vary

The State Police “shall furnish to any person involved in an accident or the person’s legal representative” a copy of the official State Police report on written request with the $15.00 fee (R.I. Gen. Laws §42-28-37). Personal information in police crash reports, as defined in the Identity Theft Protection Act of 2015 (§11-49.3-3), “shall remain privileged except that the information may be provided to an involved party to the accident or their legal representative, an insurance company, or insurance-support organization or in accordance with Rhode Island general laws” (§31-26-9(e)). The State Police ask insurers and attorneys to request reports in writing on letterhead stating their involvement. The Department of Public Safety says you do not have to give identification or a reason, except that a parent, guardian or attorney asking for a juvenile’s records must show identification, and that requests for crash reports not posted online are reviewed by Legal Counsel for an ongoing investigation or pending charges, with non-public information redacted before release (270-RICR-40-00-1, §1.6). Drivers’ own reports to the DMV are different: they are for the confidential use of the DMV and other agencies for accident prevention and financial responsibility, the DMV may disclose a person’s identity when it is not otherwise known or the person denies being there, and no such report may be used as evidence in a trial arising from the crash, though the DMV must certify on demand whether a report was filed (§31-26-13).

What to do now

1. 1

   Call police from the scene

   If anyone is hurt, call 911. Rhode Island law requires you to notify police at once after a crash that injures someone or damages another vehicle or a highway fixture.

2. 2

   Get the report number

   Ask the officer for the report number and which department is writing the report. A trooper gives you one before you leave the scene.

3. 3

   Order the crash report

   For a State Police crash, use BuyCrash.com or mail $15 to the Accident Bureau; most are ready 72 hours after the report is taken. For a local crash, ask that police department.

4. 4

   Call the DMV about a driver report

   The statute still requires a written report to the DMV within 21 days after injury or larger damage, though some police departments say the DMV takes the police report instead. Call the DMV Accident Office within the 21 days, file if it says to, and note its answer.

Frequently asked questions