Short answer
Kentucky State Police (KSP) operates Kentucky’s statewide vehicle-accident reporting system, but the agency whose officer investigated the crash remains the “originating agency” responsible for providing the report to people authorized to receive it. Start by identifying the investigating agency on the exchange card, incident number, or officer’s paperwork. KSP officially says crash reports may be obtained through BuyCrash or by a written request to its Records Custodian; however, the state regulation makes the investigating agency—not a statewide counter—the responsible source for an authorized party’s copy. 13
That distinction matters after a city police officer, sheriff’s deputy, campus officer, tribal officer, or another agency investigated. If that agency holds the record, use that agency’s records process first. Kentucky’s statewide system does not mean every report should be requested only from a KSP post. 1
Immediate checklist
- Find the investigating agency. Check the officer’s exchange sheet, case/report number, or any paperwork from the scene. If KSP investigated, KSP is the originating agency. If a local agency investigated, begin with that agency.
- Wait for the officer’s report to enter the system. KSP asks people to allow 10 days when an officer responded and said that officer would complete the report. 4
- Gather the record details. For a KSP written request, provide a signed request with your printed name, a specific description of the record—KSP gives name, date, and location as examples—plus your address and telephone number. A report number is useful if you have one. 3
- Use the right route. Authorized parties can use KSP’s officially listed BuyCrash portal, or submit a written request to KSP. For a report held by another investigating agency, follow that agency’s records instructions. 2
- Keep the confirmation. Save the request confirmation, report number, and any receipt. If the online search does not find the report, verify the investigating agency before submitting another request.
Who reports what in Kentucky
Kentucky has separate rules for notifying police, officer reporting, and a civilian self-report. They are not interchangeable.
Calling or notifying police
A vehicle operator on Kentucky highways involved in a crash causing a fatal or nonfatal personal injury, or damage that makes a vehicle inoperable, must immediately notify a law-enforcement officer with jurisdiction. If the operator cannot or does not notify law enforcement, the statute places that notification responsibility on the vehicle owner or an occupant. 1
The investigating officer’s report
When the crash falls within that notification rule, the officer with jurisdiction must investigate and file a written report with the officer’s law-enforcement agency. Every law-enforcement agency whose officers investigate a crash for which a report is required must file a report with KSP within 10 days after the investigation. 1 The state’s reporting rule calls the investigating law-enforcement agency the originating agency and says it remains responsible for providing the report to authorized parties. 2
A separate driver or civilian report
If no law-enforcement officer investigated, the driver of a vehicle on Kentucky highways must file a written report with KSP within 10 days of the crash when property damage exceeds $500. KSP provides an online civilian collision reporting tool for this route. 1
Do not submit the civilian report merely because you want another copy of an officer report. KSP explicitly instructs users not to complete it when a police officer investigated the collision. 5 KSP also says that when an officer responded and will complete the report, a second civilian report is not required. 4
The official sources used here identify KSP—not a separate DMV form—as the destination for this no-officer civilian-report route. They do not state a general insurer-notice deadline. If you did not get another party’s information, KSP suggests contacting your insurer for guidance. 1
Who may receive a crash report
Kentucky crash reports are confidential rather than open to the public without limitation. The statute says they must be made available to these groups: parties to the crash; a minor party’s parent or guardian; an insurer or its written designee for the insurance business purpose of a party named in the report; attorneys for the parties; a litigation party who requests the report and includes the first page of a clerk-stamped District or Circuit Court complaint naming all parties; the Department of Workplace Standards for a relevant occupational-safety investigation; and a law-enforcement agency, subject to the statute’s limitations. Qualified news-gathering organizations have a separate statutory route. 1
If you are requesting for someone else, do not assume a general authorization is enough. The statute’s categories control access, and KSP’s civilian-report page notes that personal identifying information may not be released except as allowed by law. 1
How to request the record
If KSP investigated or you are using the state-level route
KSP’s official records page provides two ways to pursue a report:
- Online: KSP identifies BuyCrash as a place crash reports can be obtained. It is a commercial portal, but it is included here because KSP directly designates it on its official records page.
- Written request to KSP: Submit a signed written request to the KSP Official Custodian of Records. KSP accepts it through its online open-records request portal, by mail, email, fax, or hand delivery. The KSP page provides the current contact details and the request portal. 3
For the written-request route, KSP says to print your name, sign the request, specifically describe the record, and include your address and phone number. For a crash report, identify the people involved, crash date, and location; include the report number if available. KSP does not require use of its standardized form. 3
Fees and timing
Kentucky’s traffic-collision-report regulation lists $5 for a paper copy and $10 for a report obtained through the Kentucky State Police website, for authorized parties. 2 KSP’s general open-records page separately states a charge of 10 cents per released page and says the custodian will send a letter stating what is owed for records; it also lists separate charges for certain media. 3 Because those are different request routes and descriptions, confirm the charge shown or quoted for your particular request before paying.
For a KSP open-records request, the agency says records generally are not available at the moment the request is submitted. Kentucky law requires a public agency to decide whether it will comply and notify the requester in writing within five days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. That is a decision-and-notice timeframe, not a promise that the copy will be delivered within five days. 3
If the report is unavailable or held somewhere else
First, confirm the report’s originating agency. The Kentucky rule is explicit: the law-enforcement agency whose officers made the report is the originating agency, and its responsibility to provide the report to authorized parties remains with that agency. 2
If a local police department, sheriff’s office, campus police department, tribal agency, or another investigating agency says it keeps the report, submit the request to that agency’s records custodian under its stated procedure. Provide the same core identifying details: names, date, location, and report number if known. Do not file a civilian report as a substitute for an officer’s report. 25
If you filed a civilian report because no officer investigated, KSP says submitted civilian reports are retained for up to two years and may be accessible only through a valid open-records request by an involved party, subject to legal restrictions. 4 If KSP does not have a requested record, its records page and Kentucky’s open-records statute support using a precise written request and identifying the record; when an agency does not have custody or control, the statute says it must notify the applicant and provide the name and location of the official custodian of that agency’s records. 3
Official resources
- Kentucky State Police: Open Records Requests — KSP’s written-request methods, request portal, contact information, and its official BuyCrash designation.
- Kentucky State Police: Civilian Collision Report FAQ — officer-report waiting guidance, civilian-report copies, and retention information.
- Kentucky State Police Civilian Traffic Collision Report — the online self-report route for qualifying crashes not investigated by police.
- Kentucky Revised Statutes § 189.635 and 502 KAR 15:010 — statewide reporting, access categories, originating-agency responsibility, and listed report fees.
For general next-step resources, visit AccidentFiling.ai Guides, Resources, What to Do After a Car Accident, or the Car Accident Evidence Checklist.