How to get a car accident report in South Carolina

Where to get the report

• SC Department of Motor Vehicles (any agency’s TR-310) $10; online, branch or mail on FR-50

  Officers must forward their written crash report to SCDMV within 24 hours after completing the investigation (§56-5-1270), and SCDMV furnishes copies for a fee (§56-9-330(2)). The Department of Public Safety, which runs the Highway Patrol, says crash report (TR-310) requests must be made through SCDMV. SCDMV says: request online (you enter your personal information first to authenticate, then information identifying the crash; crashes before March 22, 2012 cannot be requested online, and if you have an out-of-state license or do not know your SCDMV customer number, call 803-896-5000); in person at any SCDMV branch with Form FR-50, paying with cash, credit or debit card, check or money order; or by mail, sending two copies of the FR-50 and a check or money order for $10 (no cash) to SCDMV, Titles Mail-in Unit FR-50, PO Box 1498, Blythewood, SC 29016-0050. The FR-50 (Rev. 01/2026) says the request fee is $10.00 per report and asks for the crash date and county, the drivers’ names and license numbers, and the FR-10 or case number if known. Online payments go through SC.GOV and include SC.GOV portal fees. SCDMV says the collision report is more detailed than the report you received on the day of the crash, and that you do not need to send the request to its Communications Office (FOIA) unit.

  Official page

• Department of Public Safety (Highway Patrol photos, video, MAIT) FOIA request; attach the TR-310

  For more than the report on a Highway Patrol crash, file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Public Safety through its online FOIA request form, which it says all document requests should use (email FOIA@scdps.gov if the form fails; FOIA Manager, P.O. Box 1993, Blythewood, SC 29016, (803) 896-7759). For motor vehicle accident information requests, both sides of the TR-310 must be attached, so get the report from SCDMV first. Materials it lists for a crash: a fatality packet if anyone died (photographs and video not included), photographs and video if available, and for crashes investigated by the Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT), which does not investigate all crashes and needs at least 8 weeks, the MAIT report, scene diagram, photographs, video, audio, event data recorder and drone items. Its posted fees (updated December 13, 2023, and subject to change): fatality packet $20, photographs (non-MAIT) $20 per incident, videos (non-MAIT) $15 per disc, MAIT materials $100 per item, dispatch tapes or logs $28 each, including up to an hour of search (radio tapes are available only up to 180 days from the recording), other documents $0.25 per page, and search, retrieval and redaction from $21.97 an hour; it may ask for a 25% deposit, and payment is by check or money order to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety only.

  Official page

• City or county police (example: Charleston) Varies by agency; Charleston $5

  Most crashes are worked by city police or county sheriffs, and their officers file the same TR-310 with SCDMV, so the SCDMV path above works for them too. Many agencies also sell copies directly at their own fee; ask the agency that responded. Example, from the City of Charleston’s own page: answering how to get a police report or accident report, it sends you to the Charleston Police Department Records Office at 180 Lockwood Boulevard, (843) 720-2412, and says the police report costs $5; bring a state-issued ID and details such as the date, location and time.

  Official page

When you must report a crash in South Carolina

Injury or death: call police at once

South Carolina’s crash duties are in Article 9 of Title 56, Chapter 5, which applies on highways and elsewhere throughout the State (§56-5-20). Injury or death: the driver must immediately stop at or as close as possible to the scene, return to and remain there until meeting §56-5-1230, and may leave only temporarily to report the crash to the proper authorities (§56-5-1210(A)). Leaving is a misdemeanor with 30 days to 1 year in jail or a fine of $100 to $5,000, or both, when injury results; a felony with 30 days to 10 years and a fine of $5,000 to $10,000 when great bodily injury results; and a felony with 1 to 25 years and a fine of $10,000 to $25,000 when death results; SCDMV must revoke the license of anyone convicted (§56-5-1210(A), (D)). A vehicle in a crash causing great bodily injury or death may not be moved until the investigating officer authorizes it (§56-5-1210(B)). Damage only to an attended vehicle: stop, remain and meet §56-5-1230 (penalty up to 1 year or a fine of $100 to $5,000, or both), and if a vehicle that can be driven safely is blocking traffic, make every reasonable effort to move it off the roadway; moving it does not by itself make you liable or at fault (§56-5-1220). At the scene (§56-5-1230): give your name, address and the registration number of the vehicle you are driving, show your license on request if available, and give reasonable assistance to anyone injured, including arranging transport to a doctor or hospital when treatment is apparently necessary or requested. Unattended vehicle: stop at once and either find and notify its driver or owner of your name and address and those of the owner of the vehicle you were driving, or leave a written notice in a conspicuous place in the vehicle you hit giving the same names and addresses and a statement of the circumstances (§56-5-1240). Fixtures legally on or next to a highway: take reasonable steps to notify the owner or person in charge and give your name, address and registration number, show your license on request if available, and make any written report §56-5-1270 requires (§56-5-1250). Calling police: the driver in a crash that injures or kills anyone must immediately, by the quickest means, notify the local police department if the crash is inside a city or town, otherwise the county sheriff or the nearest South Carolina Highway Patrol office (§56-5-1260); if the driver is physically unable, another occupant who can must do it (§56-5-1280). We found no statute that requires you to call police for a crash that damages only property, but a city may by ordinance require drivers to file a crash report with a city department (§56-5-1360), so check the city’s rules. A violation of Chapter 5 with no other stated penalty is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $100 or up to 30 days (§56-5-6190). If a police vehicle is involved and someone is hurt or a private vehicle is involved, the agency that owns it may not investigate: the Highway Patrol investigates other agencies’ vehicles, and the county sheriff investigates Department of Public Safety vehicles (§56-5-765).

The driver report you may have to file

No officer: FR-309 to SCDMV in 15 days

Crash not investigated by police: the operator or owner of a vehicle in a crash that caused injury, death, or total property damage to an apparent extent of $1,000 or more, and that no law enforcement officer investigated, must send a written report and verification of liability insurance to SCDMV within 15 days of the crash; failing to send a properly verified report is prima facie evidence that the vehicle was uninsured (§56-5-1270). The form is SCDMV Form FR-309, Traffic Collision Report, Not Investigated by Law Enforcement; your insurance agent or company completes its insurance section, and you mail it to SCDMV, Financial Responsibility, P.O. Box 1498, Blythewood, SC 29016-0040. The Department of Public Safety says the Highway Patrol cannot investigate a crash that was not reported to law enforcement, so in that case you must file the FR-309 yourself. A second statute, §56-9-350, sets a lower threshold for the same uninvestigated-crash report: property damage of $400 or more, or injury or death; the FR-309 and the Department of Public Safety quote only the $1,000 figure. If an injured driver cannot make the report and is not the owner, the owner must make it within five days of learning of the crash (§56-5-1280). Reports made by people involved in crashes are for the confidential use of SCDMV, the Department of Public Safety and other State agencies, and cannot be used as evidence at trial (§§56-5-1290, 56-5-1340). Crash investigated by police: for a crash with property damage of $400 or more, or injury or death, the investigating officer must give each operator or owner a written insurance verification form at the scene or as soon as possible, and you must return it, completed and verified, to SCDMV within 15 days from the date the officer gave it to you; failing to return it is prima facie evidence that the vehicle was uninsured (§56-9-350). The Department of Public Safety calls this the FR-10, the mandatory insurance verification form, and says to contact the Highway Patrol troop office where the crash happened if you lose it. When SCDMV’s records show an uninsured vehicle in a reportable crash, it must suspend the owner’s license, plates and registrations after offering a contested case hearing (§56-10-530).

What the report costs

SCDMV $10; local agencies vary

SCDMV: $10 per collision report. The statute requires SCDMV to furnish copies for a fee but does not state the amount (§56-9-330(2)); SCDMV’s Collision Reports page and Form FR-50 (Rev. 01/2026) say $10.00 per report, and online requests add SC.GOV portal fees. The Department of Public Safety’s FOIA page still lists the FR-50 fee as $6.00; SCDMV’s current form and page say $10, so plan on $10. SCDMV may charge up to $20 more per document to expedite a request for documents it keeps, with expedited requests due within 72 hours and standard requests within 30 days (§56-1-550); its Collision Reports page does not offer an expedited option. Department of Public Safety extras: fatality packet $20, photographs $20 per incident, video $15 per disc, MAIT materials $100 per item. Local agencies set their own price; for example, the Charleston Police Department charges $5. Filing the FR-309 driver report has no fee stated in the statute or on the form.

When the report is ready

After SCDMV processes it; no set date

An officer who investigates a crash with injury, death or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more must forward the written report to SCDMV within 24 hours after completing the investigation (§56-5-1270). SCDMV’s Collision Reports page says an official copy is not available until SCDMV has received and processed it, and Form FR-50 says that if the report is not yet on file, SCDMV returns your request so you can resubmit it later. It states no typical wait. By statute, SCDMV’s standard requests for copies of its documents are due within 30 days (§56-1-550). For crashes the Highway Patrol’s MAIT investigates, the Department of Public Safety says to allow at least 8 weeks from the crash date. Driver deadlines: the FR-309 within 15 days of the crash, and the officer’s FR-10 insurance verification form within 15 days of the day you got it. We found no official statement of how long SCDMV keeps crash reports; it does say reports for crashes before March 22, 2012 cannot be ordered online, only by branch or mail.

Who can get a copy

Written request; no solicitation

We found no South Carolina statute that limits officers’ crash reports to the people involved; §56-9-330(2) says SCDMV furnishes a copy to “any person” who requests it and pays the fee, but access has two statutory conditions (§56-5-1275). No one may ask a law enforcement agency for a crash report or related investigative report for commercial solicitation, and an employee who knows or should know the request is for that purpose must refuse it. Everyone except law enforcement and the people named in the report must submit a separate written request for each report stating their name, address and intended use in enough detail for the agency to tell it is not for solicitation; a knowingly false statement is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $100 or up to 30 days (§§56-5-1275, 56-3-2520). Information in a police incident report released under the Freedom of Information Act also may not be used for commercial solicitation (§30-4-50(B)). SCDMV’s online request requires you to authenticate with your own license or customer number, and its page addresses people who were in the crash; Form FR-50 also has spaces for a business account number and a claim or file number. A driver’s own report (FR-309) is confidential to State agencies (§56-5-1340), and SCDMV may tell an injured person whether insurance is shown on such a report.

What to do now

1. 1

   Get the case and FR-10 numbers

   Ask the officer which agency took the report and for the case number, and keep the FR-10 insurance form. SCDMV’s FR-50 asks for both.

2. 2

   Return the FR-10 within 15 days

   Have the officer’s insurance verification form completed and returned to SCDMV within 15 days of receiving it, or SCDMV may treat your vehicle as uninsured.

3. 3

   No officer came? File the FR-309

   If no officer investigated and anyone was hurt or damage reached $1,000 (one statute says $400), send SCDMV the FR-309 within 15 days.

4. 4

   Order the TR-310 from SCDMV

   Request it online, at a branch, or by mail with two copies of the FR-50 and a $10 check or money order. If it is not on file yet, resubmit later.

5. 5

   Ask for video now, in writing

   Send FOIA requests for dashcam and other video right away. Body camera video is not available under FOIA, and SCDOT does not record its traffic cameras.

Frequently asked questions