How to Get a State-Level Car Accident Report in Nebraska

Short answer

For a copy of an investigating officer’s motor-vehicle car accident report in Nebraska, start with the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) Highway Safety Section. The Nebraska State Patrol directs car accident-report requests to NDOT and says that accident reports for Nebraska are kept by NDOT’s Department of Records. NDOT says an investigator’s report is public information and sells a certified copy for $13 plus tax. NDOT’s Car accident Reporting page lists requests by email, phone, mail, or in person.

This state route is for an officer’s report—not a driver’s confidential self-report. If a local police department, sheriff, campus agency, tribal agency, or other investigating agency tells you it keeps the record or NDOT cannot locate it, request the record from that investigating agency’s records office using its official procedure. The Nebraska State Patrol specifically advises requesters to contact the proper agency because it is not the custodian of car accident reports, photos, or records created by other agencies. Nebraska State Patrol’s public-records page also directs accident-report requests to NDOT.

Immediate checklist

1. Gather the car accident date, car accident location including county, and a driver’s name. NDOT lists all three for an officer-report request.
2. Request the report from NDOT Highway Safety. Ask the office how to pay the applicable tax if you are requesting by mail.
3. Keep the confirmation, receipt, or reference number provided by the office.
4. If NDOT cannot find the report, identify the agency that investigated the car accident and use that agency’s official records-request channel.
5. If no officer investigated a qualifying car accident, determine whether a separate confidential driver report must be filed with NDOT; that filing is different from buying an officer’s report.

Who can request the state-level report

Nebraska Revised Statute § 60-699 says that a car accident report made by a peace officer, filed with or made to a peace officer’s office or department, or filed with or made by or to another state law-enforcement agency is open to public inspection except as otherwise provided by statute. NDOT similarly says the officer’s report is public information. The Nebraska Attorney General’s outline explains that Nebraska’s public-records statutes authorize state residents and other interested persons to examine and obtain copies of public records unless an express exception applies. See Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-699 and the Attorney General’s public-records outline.

That public-access rule does not make a driver’s self-report public. Section 60-699 says an accident report filed by an operator or vehicle owner is not open to public inspection, and NDOT says you cannot get another driver’s report because driver reports are confidential by law. Do not request a confidential driver report as though it were the officer’s report.

Request an investigator’s car accident report from NDOT

NDOT lists these ways to obtain a certified copy of an investigator’s motor-vehicle car accident report:

• Email request: NDOT.CrashReport@Nebraska.gov. NDOT labels this as its online option.
• Phone: 402-479-4645.
• In person: Highway Safety Section, 1500 Nebraska Parkway, Room 14B, Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Mail: NDOT Highway Safety Section, P.O. Box 94759, Lincoln, NE 68509-4759. Call 402-479-4645 before mailing to confirm the correct tax amount.

NDOT states the price as $13 plus tax. For a mailed request, its instructions say to send the request and the $13 plus tax, after calling for the correct tax, with the car accident date, location including county, and driver’s name. The agency’s page does not state a post-car accident availability period or a standard turnaround time for this specific report-purchase process. Do not assume that the four-business-day timeframe on the State Patrol’s separate public-records page applies to an NDOT car accident-report purchase; that State Patrol timeframe is described for written public-records requests to the State Patrol, while accident reports are referred to NDOT.

What to gather before you contact the records office

The minimum identifiers NDOT names are the car accident date, the location including county, and a driver’s name. Providing more accurate information can help the office distinguish the event from similar car accidents. Keep available any report number or incident number given at the scene, the investigating agency’s name, the road or intersection, and the names of other drivers—but these additional items are practical identifiers, not a list of NDOT-required fields on its purchase page.

If you instead need to submit a driver report, NDOT’s official Driver’s Car accident Report form shows the information it asks for, including the car accident date, time, location, county, driver and vehicle details, insurance fields, estimated damage, and a description of what happened. Use the form or the NDOT driver-reporting portal only for the filing purpose described below; it is not the public officer-report purchase process.

Who reports what after a Nebraska car accident

Calling or notifying police

Nebraska’s statutes do not use one universal instruction in the sources reviewed here to call police after every car accident. One specific rule applies to damage to an unattended vehicle or property: the driver must stop, leave the required written information in a conspicuous place, and, without unnecessary delay, report the car accident by telephone or otherwise to an appropriate peace officer. See Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-696. Different duties apply when injury or death is involved, including stopping, identifying oneself, providing specified information, and rendering reasonable assistance under § 60-697.

The investigating officer’s report

When a law-enforcement officer completes an investigator’s car accident report, NDOT says the drivers involved do not need to complete the separate driver report. The officer’s report is the report NDOT identifies as public and available for a certified-copy purchase.

A driver’s confidential self-report to NDOT

If the car accident was not investigated by a law-enforcement officer, every vehicle operator involved must send NDOT a confidential Driver’s Car accident Report within 10 days when the car accident resulted in injury, death, or apparent property damage of at least $2,000 to any one person, including the operator. The statutory rule is in § 60-699, and NDOT provides the online filing route and mail instructions. This is a filing requirement, not a way to obtain another person’s report.

DMV, insurer, public-entity, and lawsuit matters

Section 60-699 provides that a driver report has two parts and directs NDOT to send Part II electronically to the Department of Motor Vehicles after completion. The statute also allows NDOT or DMV to require supplemental reports if the original report is insufficient. NDOT says only DMV, not its Highway Safety Section, may suspend a person’s driver’s license because of a car accident. The state car accident-report sources above do not state an additional direct-to-DMV filing for a driver who has followed the NDOT process.

Insurer notice, a notice involving a public entity, and a lawsuit deadline are separate subjects. The official Nebraska car accident-report sources cited here do not provide an insurer-notice rule, a public-entity notice rule, or a lawsuit deadline, so this page does not assign one.

If the report is unavailable or held elsewhere

First, confirm whether an officer actually investigated the car accident. If not, there may be no investigator’s report to purchase; the relevant document may be the confidential driver report, which is not public.

If an officer did investigate, begin with NDOT’s state request route. If the record cannot be located or the investigating agency says it keeps the responsive record, contact that agency’s records office and give the same core identifiers: date, location including county, driver name, and any incident number. This is especially important for a local agency’s own records, photographs, or related investigative material. Nebraska State Patrol says it is not the custodian of vehicle car accident reports or photos and not the custodian of reports or records created by other agencies, even during a joint investigation. As one official local example, the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office car accident-report page directs people seeking its completed car accident reports to an agency-designated reporting service. Local agency procedures can differ, so use the investigating agency’s official page rather than assuming every agency uses the same channel.

For help organizing the information you already have, see the car-accident evidence checklist and the site’s resources.

Official resources

• NDOT Car accident Reporting and investigator-report requests
• NDOT Driver Car accident Reporting portal
• Nebraska State Patrol car accident/accident report requests
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-699
• Nebraska Attorney General public-records outline

Sources

• Nebraska Department of Transportation, “Crash Reporting”
• Nebraska Revised Statute § 60-699
• Nebraska State Patrol, “Crash/Accident Report Requests”
• Nebraska State Patrol, “Public Records Requests”
• Nebraska Revised Statute § 60-696
• Nebraska Attorney General, “Outline of Nebraska Public Records Statutes”