Crashdocs: how to find and download your police crash report

What Crashdocs is

Crashdocs is a private website, not a police office. In its own words, "Crashdocs by CARFAX is a division of CARFAX, Inc. headquartered in Centreville, VA," and it "makes it easy for drivers to get crash reports and exchanges." Police departments and sheriff's offices sign up, post their reports, and send people there from their own pages.

For the agency, Crashdocs takes over the counter work. It says online distribution "reduces the need for law enforcement to handle administrative tasks associated with locating, copying and distributing crash reports." For you, it means no trip to the station: reports are online around the clock, and you download a PDF to print or save.

The report itself does not change. Crashdocs says the reports it provides "are identical to those available from the police station," and you can still buy yours from the police instead. The agency writes the report and decides what goes online, so a search only finds reports from agencies that post there.

Police agencies that send you to Crashdocs

Start from the agency's own page. These agencies name Crashdocs there, and most keep another route open.

For Nevada agencies, our Nevada page and Nevada Highway Patrol page give the full process, and our Arizona page covers Tucson.

How to search Crashdocs

The home page asks one thing first: "Select the state & agency where the accident occurred." If you are not sure which agency wrote the report, there is an "I don't know the agency" option. Then the agency's own details decide what you enter.

1. Pick the state and the agencyUse the agency named on the paper the officer gave you, or try "I don't know the agency".
2. Enter what the agency asks forMontclair police list the report or reference number, the last name of someone involved and the date of the collision. Aurora police need the last name and the date.
3. Check the format of the numberThe Nevada Highway Patrol's crash number "must include 'NHP' followed by number," as in NHP123456789.
4. Pay if a fee appliesCrashdocs describes the purchase as making "a payment (if required)."
5. Download the PDFReports are displayed as PDF documents that you can print or save to your files.

The home page searches for two kinds of document, "Find Your Crash Report or Driver Exchange," depending on what the agency posted.

What a Crashdocs report costs

Crashdocs does not publish one price. Each agency's page sets its own, and the published ones are low:

Because the online copy and the counter copy are identical, the cheaper route is a fair choice if you can get to the station during its hours.

When a report shows up

Crashdocs puts it simply: "Police reports are generally available on CRASHDOCS.org within 5 to 7 business days following the incident." The agencies' own pages give their own times:

• Allendale, New Jersey: 5 to 7 business days after the incident.
• Montclair, New Jersey: generally within five to seven days, longer for serious injuries, disputed circumstances or more investigation.
• Springfield Township, New Jersey: 5 to 10 days online, against 1 to 5 business days at the Police Records office.
• New Britain Township, Pennsylvania: 7 to 10 business days, or 30 days for a fatal crash or one being reconstructed.
• Nevada Highway Patrol: 7 to 14 days from the date of the crash.
• Aurora, Colorado: the report can be bought once it is approved, and the department warns that finalizing has lately taken about 6 to 12 weeks, if not longer.

For other states, see our guide to how long a police report takes.

When your report is not on Crashdocs

Check the search first

Crashdocs asks you to verify "the accuracy of your search criteria" before anything else. Check the agency, the date and the format of the report number.

It may not be posted yet

Give it the agency's stated time. Montclair police note that a report "may not yet be available if it remains under review or requires additional investigation."

You filed the report yourself

A report you completed online is not an officer's report. Aurora police say they cannot get copies of those, that they are not for sale on the third party site, and that you should contact the Department of Revenue at 303.205.5613.

Ask Crashdocs

If the search still finds nothing, contact Crashdocs with your name, the report number and the date of the accident. "All inquiries are answered within 2 business days."

Ask the agency

Since the station copy is the same report, the agency's records office is always a second route, except where it does not sell reports, as in Aurora.

Reading the codes on the report

Crash reports are full of numbered codes. Crashdocs' own FAQ points readers to a list of state code sheets on actar.org, where you pick the state and the most recent crash report. For Nevada and Arizona reports, FairSettlement, our sister site, explains the forms box by box: reading a Nevada crash report and reading an Arizona crash report.

Accounts for insurers and businesses

One report needs no account. "If you are an insurer, business or organization that needs to order multiple reports," Crashdocs says, it can set up a CARFAX for Claims account, "invoiced monthly for report purchases." Agencies can price those buyers differently: Fairfax police charge insurance companies and attorneys $10 a report against $5 for people involved.

Police agencies that want to post their own reports are sent to CARFAX for Police, the company's site for departments.

Crashdocs, BuyCrash and LexisNexis

Crashdocs is one of several report sites. BuyCrash is run by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and LexisNexis also runs request forms for some departments. A report sits only on the site its agency uses, so search the one the agency's own page names.

Questions about Crashdocs