Short answer
In Washington, the report you need depends first on whether a law-enforcement officer investigates the collision. The Department of Licensing (DOL) says that when an officer investigates, the officer files the collision report and the drivers do not need to file one. When no officer investigates, each driver must submit a collision report within four days. The current property-damage reporting threshold is $1,000; injuries or deaths also trigger the reporting framework. DOL’s reporting instructions and WAC 446-85-010 are the practical starting points.
Washington also separates scene duties from the later collision-report process. For a crash involving an injury, death, an attended vehicle, or other property, state law requires drivers to stop, exchange specified identity, vehicle, and insurance information, and give reasonable assistance when required. The law specifically directs a report to the nearest authorized police office when no person is able to receive the required information and no officer is present. That is not the same thing as a blanket rule that every collision requires a police call. See RCW 46.52.020.
Immediate checklist
- Follow the scene duties that fit the collision. Stop, avoid blocking traffic more than necessary, and exchange the information Washington law identifies: name, address, insurer and policy number, license plate number, and driver license information. RCW 46.52.020 explains those duties.
- Identify whether an officer investigated or said a report would be completed. Keep any exchange-of-information sheet, incident number, or agency name. If an officer investigates, DOL says the officer files the collision report.
- If no officer investigated, check the civilian-report requirement promptly. DOL says each driver involved must submit a report within four days. WSP’s civilian instructions cover collisions in Washington with injury to a person and/or $1,000 or more damage to any one unit. Start an online civilian report through OMVCR, or use WSP’s paper form and instructions below.
- Preserve basic records. Save the collision date, approximate time and location, names of involved people, vehicle plates, insurance details, photographs, witness contact information, and the responding agency or officer name. The car-accident evidence checklist can help organize those items.
- Do not assume a civilian report is a police investigation. WSP says an OMVCR report submitted when an officer did not respond or directed a civilian filing will not be investigated by local law enforcement, WSP, or WSP Collision Records.
Who reports what in Washington?
| Situation or record | Who files it | Where to find the official instruction or form | Key distinction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Police Traffic Collision Report (PTCR) | The investigating law-enforcement officer. Washington law requires an officer with relevant collision facts to make a report; for a collision requiring a report, an investigating officer submits the investigator’s report. RCW 46.52.070 and RCW 46.52.030 | WSP Collision Reports links the PTCR manual for law-enforcement use. | This is an officer-created record, not a form a driver completes for the officer. |
| Civilian Motor Vehicle Collision Report (MVCR) | If no law-enforcement officer investigates, DOL says each driver submits a report within four days. WSP’s portal also identifies drivers, pedestrians, pedalcyclists, and property owners as people who can complete the civilian report for a qualifying collision. | OMVCR online report or WSP’s downloadable MVCR form. | It documents the collision for records or insurance purposes; WSP says it is not investigated when no officer responded or when civilian filing was directed. |
| DOL driving-record entry | There is no additional ordinary DOL crash-report form described on DOL’s collision-report page. WSP receives the report and gives DOL access under RCW 46.52.030. | DOL reporting collision damage | For qualifying collisions, DOL says a driver’s record may list collision date, number of vehicles, movement status, injury/fatality indicator, and report number. DOL says this does not state who caused the collision. |
| DOL Motor Vehicle Claim for Damages | A person seeking to report unpaid collision damages from an uninsured driver may file it with DOL. | DOL’s claim instructions | This is not the ordinary crash report. DOL describes it only where an uninsured driver fails to pay; it must be filed within 180 days and needs supporting estimates and receipts. |
The underlying statute does not require a driver report when a law-enforcement officer will make the required report. It also permits reports below the threshold or in addition to an officer report, but that permission should not be confused with a new filing duty. RCW 46.52.030.
How to submit a civilian report
For a qualifying collision without an officer investigation, the quickest official route is WSP’s Online Motor Vehicle Collision Reporting (OMVCR) system. It lets a person involved complete and submit the report and receive a report number. WSP’s collision-records page also provides the current Motor Vehicle Collision Report form. A completed, signed paper form may be mailed to WSP Collision Records, P.O. Box 42628, Olympia, WA 98504-2628, or emailed to collisionrecords@wsp.wa.gov. WSP notes that the paper process takes longer to produce a report number.
A collision report is separate from notifying an insurer. It is also separate from a claim against a government entity or a court case. The WSP and DOL reporting instructions above establish the collision-report steps; they do not replace any other notice or claim process that may apply.
How to find or request the collision record
Use the official Washington Requests for Electronic Collision Reports (WRECR) service to look for a report. WSP says the online search requires the involved party’s name or names and the collision date; a matching report is displayed before the transaction is completed. The online system requires internet access and an email account. Open WRECR. WSP’s published collision-records instructions do not say that WRECR is a complete statewide repository for every investigating agency’s record, so do not assume that a search covers every local, campus, tribal, or other agency report.
WSP states a copy costs $10.50 per report and reports can take two to four weeks to become available while the officer’s investigation is completed and approved. A request may also be made by mail using WSP’s Request for Copy of Collision Report form with a $10.50 check or money order payable to Washington State Patrol.
Access is not identical for every requester. WSP says entitled parties receive a non-redacted record, while others receive a redacted copy under the Public Records Act. The statute identifies people with a proper interest for specified factual information, including involved drivers, guardians or parents of a minor driver, injured people, owners of damaged property or vehicles, and their authorized representatives, attorneys, or insurers. RCW 46.52.080 also provides that required accident reports are confidential for the uses stated there and generally may not be used as evidence in a civil or criminal trial arising from the crash.
If WRECR has no report or another agency responded
Do not treat WRECR as proof that no report exists. WSP’s own instruction is to contact the officer or department that arrived at the scene for verification if WRECR returns “no record found” after several weeks. That is the official fallback when the report may be held or still being processed elsewhere. If the responding agency was local police, a sheriff, a campus department, a tribal agency, or another law-enforcement agency, ask that responding agency whether it created the report and how it releases records. Keep its case number, report number, agency name, collision date, and location with your request.
For a broader WSP public-records request rather than a collision-report copy, WSP directs requesters to its Public Disclosure Records portal. That route should not be assumed to replace the WRECR collision-report procedure or the responding agency’s own records process.
Official resources
- Washington State Patrol: Collision Reports — official forms, OMVCR, WRECR, fees, mail instructions, timing, and contact details.
- Washington DOL: Reporting collision damage — who files, DOL driving-record information, and the uninsured-driver damages claim procedure.
- WSP OMVCR — online civilian collision reporting.
- WSP WRECR — request a collision report online.
- Washington accident-report laws — Chapter 46.52 RCW.
- AccidentFiling.ai guides — additional practical crash-documentation resources.
Sources
- Washington State Patrol, “Collision Reports”
- Washington State Department of Licensing, “Reporting collision damage”
- RCW 46.52.020, “Duty in case of personal injury or death or damage to attended vehicle or other property”
- RCW 46.52.030, “Accident reports”
- RCW 46.52.070, “Police officer’s report”
- RCW 46.52.080, “Confidentiality of reports”
- WAC 446-85-010, “Accident-reporting threshold”