Request Georgia Accident Reports

Georgia defines a crash or accident as the collision of any motor vehicle with another vehicle or object, or the involvement of a motor vehicle in any manner where a person is killed or injured, or where a person suffers more than $500 in property damage.

You should file a report if you’re the operator of a vehicle involved in a crash where the damage to any one vehicle or property is over $500, if there is an injury to any person, or if any person was killed. You should file your report with local law enforcement as soon as possible. Georgia law encourages all drivers to call 911 immediately after a crash occurs.

Data from a crash report is used for many purposes including:

• Identifying locations with a large number of crashes.
• Improving dangerous highways and intersections.
• Developing highway safety public information programs.
• Developing programs to save lives and reduce highway injuries.

A traffic collision occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Traffic collisions often result in injury, death, and property damage.

Obtaining Georgia auto accident reports is relatively straightforward. State law enables you to get a Georgia accident report through the Georgia Open Records Act.

The Open Records Act allows you to make an open records request to find an auto accident report. You can submit an accident report form through the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s DPS Open Records Unit or a local State Patrol Post.

Your request for Georgia state police crash reports must include your name, address, phone number, the person involved, record type, and which city or county the accident happened in. If you have an incident report number, write it down to search for a crash report.

Police crash reports are complicated documents, but if you want to delve deeper into your report, use the Accident Report Overlay, which lists all the codes and their meanings. Codes are essential in decoding what caused the accident and who may have been responsible.

Some codes to focus on include the driver's condition, vision obscured, and vehicle condition.

Remember, Georgia crash reports are interpretations written by the responding officer. Your accident report online is not legally binding. However, a Georgia uniform motor vehicle accident report will form the basis of your insurance claim, with insurance companies often viewing them as gospel in injury and liability claims.

State law encourages drivers to call 911 immediately if an accident occurs and to fill out a Personal Report of Accident Form. These are incident reports filled out by drivers and will not be published in the same way as Georgia state patrol accident reports online.

You may be wondering what the purpose is if these forms are not to be filed with the police or any state agency. If you’re looking to find an auto accident report, these personal reports can act as supplementary documents.

Figuring out, “How do I find my accident report online in Georgia?” is the first step, but these reports support your insurance company’s claim.

Note that your accident report cannot be used as evidence for claims of negligence in an action to recover damages. Your accident report online will be used for assessing your claims via your insurer.

According to the GDOT, the Peach State suffers from one of the country's highest rates of fatal traffic accidents. In 2020, more than 330,000 recorded accidents on Georgia’s roads, with 1,588 being fatal, resulting in 1,730 deaths. Early estimates for 2021 reveal that the trend has ticked up slightly, with 1,776 road traffic fatalities in the state.

The uptick in fatal crashes that began with the pandemic has failed to slow down, with the transportation industry expecting the number of deadly crashes to increase in 2022. Only time will tell as to whether this prediction comes to pass.