Autauga County, Alabama: Crash Reporting Requirements: Police, Driver, and Motor Vehicle Reports

Autauga County, Alabama local guide: This county or county-equivalent page applies the state and national guidance and official resources below to people looking for accident information in Autauga County, Alabama. The agency responsible for a police report or records request can depend on where the incident occurred and which agency investigated it. Confirm the agency shown on the report or incident information before requesting a record.

Short answer

After an Alabama road crash, calling or notifying police, an officer’s crash report, and a driver’s written safety-responsibility report are separate things. If a motor-vehicle crash causes injury or death, the driver must immediately give notice by the quickest means to the local police department inside a municipality, or otherwise to the county sheriff or State Highway Patrol. That rule is in Alabama Code § 32-10-5.

If an officer investigates, the officer—not the driver—must forward a completed written report on the uniform accident report form to the director within 24 hours after completing the investigation. Separately, § 32-7-5 says an operator must make a written report to the director within 30 days when a crash in Alabama causes death, injury, or property damage to any one person exceeding $250. The owner has a different 10-day duty after learning of the crash if the operator is physically unable to report.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) sells eligible requesters a copy of a crash report for $15 online or at an ALEA Driver License Office. A report request does not file a police report or a driver report.

Immediate checklist

Stop, remain as required, and exchange information. For a crash involving injury, death, or damage to a driven or attended vehicle, Alabama law requires the driver to stop and remain until completing the information-and-aid duties in §§ 32-10-1 and 32-10-2. Those duties include giving name, address, and vehicle registration number, showing a driver license when requested, and providing reasonable assistance to an injured person.
Use the correct police-notice threshold. The specific immediate-notice rule in § 32-10-5 applies to injury or death. It does not say that every property-only crash has that same immediate-notice requirement. Inside a municipality, notice goes to local police; otherwise it goes to the county sheriff or State Highway Patrol.
Record who investigated. Write down the agency name, officer name or badge number, case or report number if given, crash date, approximate time, exact location, and the other vehicle’s identifying information. 4. Check the separate written-report rule. If the crash meets the death, injury, or property-damage threshold in § 32-7-5, the operator’s written report is a separate state-level task from an officer report. Do not assume that buying a report means this duty has been completed.
Keep your own materials together. Photos, contact information, registration and insurance information, repair records, and correspondence can help identify the record and document what happened. For an organized list, see the car-accident evidence checklist.

Who reports what in Alabama

Report or action	Who handles it	When it applies and where it goes
Immediate crash notice	The driver	For a crash resulting in injury or death, immediately notify local police inside a municipality; otherwise the county sheriff or State Highway Patrol. This is the rule in § 32-10-5.
Uniform traffic crash report	The investigating law-enforcement officer	An officer who investigates at the scene or later by interviewing participants or witnesses must forward the completed report to the director within 24 hours after completing the investigation. § 32-10-7 makes this an officer duty, not a form a driver creates.
Written safety-responsibility report	Usually the operator; the owner if the operator is physically incapable	For an Alabama crash involving death, injury, or property damage to any one person over $250, § 32-7-5 says the operator must report the matter in writing to the director within 30 days. If physically incapable, the owner must report within 10 days after learning of the crash. The statute says the form is prescribed by the director for a security determination.
SR-31 Safety Responsibility Accident Report Claim Form	A person or company making an uncompensated claim meeting the form’s stated conditions	ALEA lists the SR-31 form among Driver License Forms. Its instructions say completion is required only for an Alabama crash caused by an uninsured motorist that involved death, injury, or property damage to any one owner over $500, and only when the claimant has not been compensated. It is an accident-claim form, not the officer’s uniform crash report.
Garage or repair-shop report	The person in charge of the garage or repair shop	§ 32-10-10 imposes a 24-hour report duty in the circumstances described there for a vehicle brought in showing evidence of an accident for which a § 32-10-7 report must be made, or bullet damage. This is not a driver filing task.

The $250 statutory reporting threshold and the SR-31’s $500 uninsured-motorist condition are different. The official sources reviewed do not identify one general online form for every § 32-7-5 situation. Do not treat SR-31 as a general police-report substitute.

How to find or request the police crash report

ALEA’s crash-report page lists a $15 copy fee and online purchase through ALEA’s driver-license services or purchase at an ALEA Driver License Office. It directs readers to § 32-10-7 for eligibility.

That statute does not make reports open to everyone. It permits requests in listed circumstances, including by people involved in the crash; a parent or guardian of an involved minor; certain estate representatives or heirs; an insurer or its written designee; an involved person’s attorney with signed consent; certain government entities; and an involved vehicle’s owner or lienholder. Release is not guaranteed simply because a crash occurred.

For a paper request, use ALEA’s Crash Report Request form. It requires a completed form, $15 cashier’s check, certified check, or money order payable to ALEA, and a self-addressed stamped envelope. It requests driver and crash details; it says not to send cash or a personal check.

ALEA’s general Public Records Request Portal directs crash-report requests to the driver-license service. Its $20 minimum is for a general public-records request, not the $15 crash-report purchase. Neither ALEA crash-report access page states a waiting period.

If the report is unavailable or another agency holds it

Section 32-10-7 requires forwarding but also allows local police departments and contracted agents to retain copies. If ALEA cannot locate the record, contact the records office of the agency that investigated and ask whether an officer report was completed, its report number, and its official request channel.

Procedures may be agency-specific. For example, the Birmingham Police Department Records Division lists online or in-person purchase and a $10 local accident-report fee. That is not a statewide fee or availability promise.

If no officer investigated, keep your crash information and return to the separate § 32-7-5 written-report question. No police report does not itself answer whether that statute applies.

What is not the same as a state crash report

An insurance claim is separate from the police report and safety-responsibility report. The Alabama Department of Insurance FAQ describes claims against the at-fault party’s insurer or use of collision coverage; it does not make an insurance claim a state crash report. The sources reviewed do not establish one universal insurer-notice deadline, public-entity notice rule, or lawsuit deadline, so none is presented as a crash-reporting rule.

For broader organization, see AccidentFiling.ai’s guides and what to do after a car accident.