How to Get a Crash Report in North Dakota

Crash reports in North Dakota are available from the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT). State law requires law enforcement crash reports to be sent to NDDOT electronically. The North Dakota Highway Patrol also sends you to the NDDOT website to request a report.^1,3,4

NDDOT sells reports online for crashes that are reportable to it. A reportable crash is one that causes an injury, a death, or at least $4,000 in total property damage. A crash with a wild animal is not reportable if no one is hurt or killed, no matter how much damage it causes.²

NDDOT says you may not be able to find a report if the crash did not cause an injury, a death, or at least $4,000 in property damage.²

Buy it online from NDDOT. Start on NDDOT's Purchase Crash Report page. The Highway Patrol also says to request crash reports online through the NDDOT website.^2,3,4

Get help from NDDOT. If you have trouble buying a report, NDDOT asks you to use the contact link on its Purchase Crash Report page. NDDOT also has an online contact form for questions about buying a crash report.^2,5

By mail: the Highway Patrol says the mail-in request form is no longer accepted. An online request system replaced it.⁶

You need at least two of these three details: the date of the crash, a last name, and the county where the crash happened.²

If you don't have these details, NDDOT says to contact the law enforcement agency that investigated the crash to get them.²

NDDOT charges a $7 fee to locate and provide a crash report. The North Dakota Highway Patrol also gives the cost as $7.^2,3,4,6

State law allows a fee of up to $7 for a copy of a crash report.¹

If the report is available, you get it right away when you buy it.^2,6

NDDOT says you may not be able to find the report if it has been less than 10 days since the crash. State law requires an officer who investigates a reportable crash to send a report to NDDOT within 10 days after the crash.^1,2

Under state law, crash reports filed by law enforcement officers are not confidential, except where the law says otherwise.¹

If you were a party to the crash, state law says NDDOT must release a copy of the completed report when you ask and pay the fee. The same applies to a party's legal representative, the insurer of any party, that insurer's agent, and some others the law lists. These requesters can also get personal details that are left out of other people's copies.¹

Anyone else may be able to get a copy with some personal details left out. State law lets NDDOT give any person a copy of an officer's report on a reportable crash, for a fee of up to $7. That copy leaves out each party's driver identification number, telephone number, insurance company name and policy number, and day and month of birth. If a party is a minor, it also leaves out the minor's name, driver identification number, and any phone number that belongs only to the minor.^1,2

NDDOT may also send a copy of a crash report to the registered owner of each vehicle involved, without a request.¹

Crash reports made by people involved in a crash, or by garages, are treated differently. State law says those reports are for the confidential use of NDDOT or other state agencies that use them for crash prevention.¹

State law requires every law enforcement officer who investigates a reportable crash to send a report to NDDOT. That includes city police officers and county sheriff's deputies.¹

Under state law, if you are the driver in a crash that causes an injury or death, or apparent property damage of at least $4,000, you must give notice of the crash right away. If the crash happened in a city or other municipality, notify the local police department. Otherwise, notify the county sheriff's office or the North Dakota Highway Patrol.^1,3

If you don't have the required insurance information to give the investigating officer, you must give it to the driver's license division within five days of the crash, in the form the division requires.¹

If the driver is physically unable to give notice right away, another person in the vehicle who can do so must give the notice or have it given. If the driver is physically unable to give notice and is not the vehicle's owner, the owner must give the notice, and any insurance information the driver did not give, within five days of learning about the crash.¹

You don't have to give notice if you hit a wild animal and only your own vehicle is damaged, no matter how much damage there is.¹

If your crash damages only highway fixtures or other property, you must take reasonable steps to find and notify the owner or the person in charge of that property.¹

A driver who doesn't give the required notice must be fined $50. NDDOT's director may also suspend the license or permit to drive of anyone who doesn't meet the crash duties in sections 39-08-06 through 39-08-09 of the North Dakota Century Code, until those duties are met. This includes a nonresident's privilege to drive in North Dakota.¹

A city or other municipality can pass an ordinance that requires drivers in a crash to file a report with a city department. A report filed under such an ordinance is for that department's confidential use.¹