Texas Police Accident Reports

Were you injured in an auto accident? If so, you should know how to read a police accident report made by an investigating officer. Jim “The Texas Hammer” Adler has decades of experience dealing with Texas accident reports and can fight for your legal right to payments for your injury losses.

Why Are Accident Reports Important?

As for why accident reports are important, they may be vital evidence when making a personal injury claim. In fact, insurance companies often demand a copy of your police accident report just to handle your claim.

Such crash reports are not completed at the scene of an accident, but rather within 10 days of the accident. By state law, Texas Transportation Code §550.062, crash reports are required for any collision causing injury or death or $1,000 or more damage to property.

If you’re wondering how you can get an accident report, the injury lawyers at Jim Adler & Associates’ Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Channelview offices can help you. Or you can go to the Texas Department of Transportation’s website.

There, you can request a copy of a Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (CR-3). Online customers can receive a crash report immediately if it’s available for purchase, at a charge of $6 for a regular copy or $8 for a certified copy for legal proceedings. You also can request a crash report be delivered by mail.

TxDOT is the custodian of records for all Texas accident reports. TxDOT collects crash reports from each law enforcement agency in Texas, regardless of whether the crash was on a state highway or other public road. It keeps such records for 10 years beyond their year of origin, but that policy began only recently, so crashes before 2009 are not available.

If you get a copy of the four-page document on your own from TxDOT, you still may need help understanding it and how it may impact your injury claim. Again, Jim Adler’s injury lawyers can help. Notify us today for a free legal review of your case, which can include an evaluation of your accident report.

In most cases, police are not witnesses to the accidents they assess. Thus, police form opinions of the crash for the accident report — opinions based on information gathered at the scene.

In the form of a written narrative, police will describe how and why they believe the accident occurred under the report’s heading of “Factors and Conditions.” This can include information on weather conditions, road conditions and traffic controls.

Police officers also may draw a pictorial diagram of how they believe a crash occurred. But as with a written narrative, that constitutes police opinion and not necessarily the facts of the crash.

What If An Accident Report Is Wrong?

If an accident report is wrong, let us help you dispute it.

For instance, page 2 of your accident report has an “Injury Code” column which can greatly impact your claim for health care costs. The same page also lists “Factors and Conditions” in the accident, which the officer may have misunderstood or misinterpreted. In any event, a knowledgeable car accident attorney can challenge and correct errors in the accident report.

This can be very important, since insurance companies may cite your crash report in assessing payment for your injury losses. If the report is inaccurate and not in your favor, you could lose payments to which you should be legally entitled.

Not everyone can view a crash report, which is considered by TxDOT to be “confidential in nature.”

Texas Transportation Code §550.065 allows for release of crash reports on written request and upon payment of required fees to anyone “directly concerned in the accident or having proper interest therein.” This includes persons actually involved in the accident, as well as their authorized representative, employer, parent or legal guardian.

An authorized representative of a crash victim can be an injury lawyer provided by Jim Adler & Associates. Let us help you understand the paperwork and significance of a car accident report. Contact us today for a free case review.