Make an Accident Report

If you are involved in an accident of any kind, you will probably need to write some kind of report. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, particularly if it involves significant property damage or injury, your state law probably requires a report. If you have an accident at work, you will need to submit a report for workers compensation. Finally, you may be in a position to provide an accident report that could become evidence in court. You need to provide information that is accurate, unbiased, and well written.

Steps

Preparing a Motor Vehicle Accident Report

1. Use an official form if one is available. In most jurisdictions, the local police will have an official motor vehicle accident reporting form. You should find out if such a form exists, and use it to make your report. Using the form will prompt you to provide a complete report with all the necessary information.
   • For example, in Oregon, you must use the Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report form if any vehicle sustained over $1,500 in damage or if any person was injured or killed. The report form is available online, from the police or at the DMV.
   • Most other jurisdictions have similar reporting requirements and report forms. Look for the one that applies in your area.
2. Be complete. The official forms are used because they will encourage you to provide all the necessary information. If you fill in the form completely, you will have a report that provides the police and insurance companies all the information they will need.
   • For example, the Oregon Traffic Accident and Insurance Report form has sections that ask for the parties’ identification, witnesses’ identification, description of the accident, weather conditions, road surface, description of damage, and others.
3. Stick to the facts. While it is understandable that you may be emotional after being involved in an accident, you should complete the report as objectively as you can. Do not get emotional or include conclusions about the fault of the accident. If you believe the other driver was at fault, the facts that you report should show that. But any sentences you include that say, “The other driver caused the accident” will serve no purpose.
4. Get witness identifications. The best witnesses are those who will be seen as impartial. If someone was riding with you in your car, that person can certainly provide a witness statement. But if you see someone walking down the street who witnessed the accident, that person will be more valuable because he or she has no connection to you and is more likely to be deemed fair and impartial.
   • Get the name and contact information for any witness who saw what happened. If possible, before you leave the scene, ask the witness(es), “Can you tell me what you saw?”
5. Provide a description of the environment. Most official accident report forms will prompt you to provide a description of the scene, in case any environmental factors may have caused the accident. You should provide this information as factually and as completely as possible. If you are using an official form, complete these sections fully. If you are writing your own accident report, include descriptions of the following:
   • Location
   • Cross streets
   • Traffic
   • Weather conditions
   • Road surface (dry, wet, snowy, gravel)
   • Light conditions (daylight, dawn, dusk, darkness)
   • Visibility (foggy, overcast, smog, clear)
6. File the report as required. Your state DMV or insurance agency probably has requirements about filing accident reports promptly. In most jurisdictions, an accident report should be filed within 3 days following the accident. Check with your insurance company, the DMV, or the local police about the filing requirements in your jurisdiction.
   • For example, in Oregon you must submit the completed report within 72 hours. You are instructed to make a copy for your own records, and then submit the original by mail to Accident Reporting Unit, DMV, 1905 Lana Ave NE, Salem OR 97314 or FAX to (503) 945- 5267, or deliver it to any DMV office.

Reporting an Accident at Work

1. Get immediate medical attention as needed. If you have an accident at work, you probably have an internal policy for dealing with accidents. The first step should be to take care of yourself medically. If you have a nurse or clinic on site, you should go get checked out. If the injury is serious, you may need to go to a hospital. If it is minor, get whatever first aid you need.
   • An accident report form should be submitted as soon as possible. You can tend to an accident report as soon as your condition is stable, but do not let it wait. In most cases, you should file it within two to three days.
2. Check with your employer for an official report form. Most work places will have a specific form that you should use for reporting any accident, with or without a personal injury. If you are injured, your employer will need to know, in order to submit papers for workers compensation.
3. Complete form as much as possible. Your employer should have an official form for you to submit, which will help to report the accident for workers’ compensation. Be sure to fill in the form completely. Usually, such a form will include sections for the following information:
   • Your identification
   • Your job status
   • Any pre-existing medical conditions
   • Time and location of the incident
   • Description of what happened
   • Description of any injury you sustained
   • Identification of any witnesses.
4. Include any witnesses. If anyone was present when the accident happened, ask them if they saw it, and ask if they can describe what they saw. Some people may be present but not actually observe what happened. In either case, you should include their names and contact information in the “Witness” section of the accident report. Even if the witness is also an employee of the company, you should provide contact information, because people outside the company may be working with the report form.
5. Describe environmental conditions. If the weather or other environmental conditions were relevant to the accident, be sure to include those details in your report. Provide information about snow, ice, floor conditions, or anything else that may have been a factor.
6. Do not accept responsibility for accident. Even if you feel that you may have been careless or played a role in the accident, do not include statements to that effect in the incident report. Be factual and stick to details about what happened. Any investigation into fault or responsibility can happen later.

Writing Incident Reports for Use in Court

1. Be accurate and specific. If you are taking notes and writing an incident report that you expect may be used as evidence in a court proceeding, you must develop strong credibility. Anything you write will need to stand up to cross-examination.
2. Report facts and not conclusions. Whether you are writing an incident report based on your own observations or based on witness testimony, you will need to remain factual. You need to limit the written report to facts, so the conclusions can be made in court.
   • As an example, a factual observation would be to say that the driver of the red Honda crossed the center line into oncoming traffic. It would be a conclusion to say that the driver of the red car caused the accident.
3. Be complete but also concise. It is important for your report to include everything that is necessary for the reader to understand what happened. However, you should limit what you say to only the important facts. Avoid unnecessary narration or description.
4. Be objective. A good, objective report should be fair and impartial, without slanting in favor of either party involved. If your report is going to be accepted in court, it should be as fairly objective as you can make it.
   • A fair, objective statement would be to say, “Mr. Smith appeared to be approximately six feet tall.”
   • A subjective, slanted statement would be to say, “Mr. Smith was a big bully.”
5. Focus on direct observations. Do not include statements of hearsay or assumption in your report. Any such statements would only be challenged if the report is presented in court. Limit your report to things that you, or the witness you are writing for, actually observed.
   • For example, if you are writing a report of a motor vehicle accident scene, when you did not directly observe the accident, you may write, “The rear panel of the Honda was severely dented, and the front end of the pickup truck was crumpled.” You should not write, “The pickup truck rear-ended the Honda,” unless you were actually there to see it happen.
6. Use good grammar and full sentences. The credibility of your report will be judged not only on the content but also on your style of writing. It is important to use complete sentences, standard punctuation and grammar, and to proofread your report before signing and submitting it.
   • Something as simple as comma usage can change the meaning of your report. For example, consider these two sentences:
     • ”The second patient who was transported to the hospital died from injuries sustained in the accident.” (This suggests that at least two patients were transported to the hospital, and the second one died.)
     • ”The second patient, who was transported to the hospital, died from injuries sustained in the accident.” (This sentence suggests that only the second patient was transported to the hospital.)

Tips

• Obtain a citizen's accident report form from your state or province's transportation department, local police or highway patrol. Keep the report form in your vehicle. You may be able to find a form by doing a web search for your state or province and "accident report form" or "collision report form." Librarians may be able to direct you where to obtain a form.
• If you can't get a form from governmental authorities, do a web search for "accident report form," "generic collision report" or something similar and download and print out a generic form to carry in your car. If forms for your state are unavailable, print out and carry a collision report form from another state or jurisdiction, as the forms, and the information requested, are likely similar.
• Make extra copies of your report, as you may have to file the report with your state or provincial government and insurance company in addition to the police agency that has jurisdiction.

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References

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• Make a Work Accident Injury Claim