How to Get a State-Level Crash Report in Adams County, Washington

Short answer

For a Washington crash report, start with the Washington State Patrol (WSP) Collision Records Section. Its official Washington Requests for Electronic Collision Records (WRECR) service lets you search and buy a report online; WSP also accepts a mail request form. The listed price is $10.50 per report, and WSP says a report can take up to 2–4 weeks to become available while the officer completes and a supervisor approves it.

WRECR is Washington’s state-level collision-records route, but do not treat a “no record found” result as proof that no agency has a report. WSP specifically says that if an officer responded and WRECR still shows no record, contact the officer or department that came to the scene to verify what was filed. That is the right first fallback for a city police, county sheriff, campus, tribal, or other local-agency response.

Immediate checklist

Before searching or ordering, gather:

• The collision date. WRECR requires a date range to search.
• An involved person’s first and last name. A collision report number or case number is helpful if you have one, but WRECR lists them as optional search fields.
• The city and county, roadway or location, and the other driver’s name if known. The mail form asks for these details to help locate the record.
• The name of the agency and officer who responded, plus any exchange-of-information sheet, incident number, or case number you received.
• Your connection to the collision, such as driver, injured passenger, owner of damaged property, insurer, attorney, or authorized representative. The request form asks how the requester was involved.

Keep your own photos, exchange information, messages, and other records separately while you wait. The car accident evidence checklist can help organize those materials; it is not a substitute for the government report.

Who reports what in Washington

Calling police or notifying an agency

This page is about obtaining or submitting the state collision record. The official WSP and Department of Licensing (DOL) sources used here explain the reporting process after an officer investigates or when no officer investigates; they do not provide a general instruction on every situation in which someone must call police. Do not assume that purchasing a report later notifies law enforcement of a crash.

Investigating officer report

If a law-enforcement officer investigates the collision, the Washington DOL says the investigating officer will file a collision report and the driver does not need to file one. Washington law separately directs a state, county, city, town, or other political-subdivision police officer who is at the scene or has accident facts to make a report; for reportable crashes, an investigating officer submits the investigator’s report. See RCW 46.52.030 and RCW 46.52.070.

Civilian driver or motor-vehicle collision report

When no law-enforcement officer investigates, DOL says each driver involved must submit a report within four days. The statutory reporting rule applies to a collision involving injury or death, or apparent property damage to one person’s property at or above the reporting threshold; the current threshold is $1,000 under WAC 446-85-010. That is a reporting rule, not a waiting period for getting a copy.

WSP’s Online Motor Vehicle Collision Reporting (OMVCR) page says a driver, pedestrian, pedal-cycle rider, or property owner involved in a Washington collision with $1,000 or more damage to any one unit and/or injury must complete a Motor Vehicle Collision Report, unless an officer is present and indicates that the officer will submit a collision report. The same page warns that a civilian online report is not investigated by local law enforcement, WSP, or WSP Collision Records; it is for the submitter’s records or insurance purposes and provides a report number.

WSP offers OMVCR for electronic submission. Its Collision Records page also provides a paper Motor Vehicle Collision Report that may be mailed or emailed as WSP directs. If a local agency gave you different reporting directions, retain those directions and contact that agency about its specific record.

DOL record information

DOL states that for collisions involving bodily injury or at least $1,000 in property damage to any one person’s property, certain collision information is added to the involved drivers’ driving records. That entry identifies involvement and does not identify who caused the collision. DOL directs people seeking a copy of the collision report to WSP Collision Records, rather than presenting the driving record as the collision-report copy.

How to find and request the record

1. Search WRECR online

Use the official WRECR order page. WSP says the service can be used from a device with internet access and an email account. There is no fee to search. Enter a collision date range; add the report number, case number, involved person’s name, city, or county if you have them. If the search finds the record, follow the transaction steps to purchase it. The current WRECR page lists $10.50 per report.

2. Request by mail

Alternatively, complete WSP’s Request for Copy of Collision Report. It allows a request for either an officer-investigated Police Traffic Collision Report or a non-officer-investigated Motor Vehicle Collision Report. The form directs requesters to include a $10.50 check or money order payable to Washington State Patrol and not to send cash. Mail it to:

Washington State Patrol
Collision Records Section
P.O. Box 42628
Olympia, WA 98504-2628

The form marks the collision date, county, and an involved person’s first and last name as needed collision information; it asks for requester contact details and how the requester was involved. Include the report or case number when available, even though the form labels the collision report number optional.

Who can receive the report and what copy may be provided

Washington’s report-access law treats required collision reports as confidential but requires disclosure of specified factual details to a person with a proper interest. The statute gives examples: involved drivers, a minor driver’s parent or guardian, injured people, owners of damaged vehicles or property, authorized representatives, attorneys, and insurers. It also makes officer-submitted factual data and signed witness statements available to those interested parties. See RCW 46.52.080 and RCW 46.52.083.

WSP says entitled parties receive a non-redacted copy. People or agencies that do not meet its definition of an entitled party receive a redacted copy under the Public Records Act. The WSP request form likewise asks the requester to identify their role. Provide accurate requester information rather than assuming that every requester receives the same version.

If WRECR has no report or the response was local

First, allow the stated 2–4 weeks for an officer’s report to be completed and approved. WSP says reports are often available sooner, but that time is its guideline. If the date range and name search still return no record, WSP’s instruction is to contact the officer or department that arrived at the scene for verification.

That step matters when the response was by local police, a sheriff, a campus agency, a tribal agency, or another non-WSP agency: identify the actual investigating agency and ask whether it created a collision report, whether it sent a report to WSP, and what records-request procedure it uses. Washington law provides for report flow to WSP for required reports, but neither WRECR nor the sources above promise that every locally handled incident will be immediately searchable there. Do not substitute a general WSP public-records request for the agency that holds the local record without first confirming where the report is kept.

If no officer investigated and the civilian-report rule applies, submit the required civilian report through OMVCR or the WSP paper process rather than waiting for an officer report that was never created. For a broader post-crash task list, see What to Do After a Car Accident.

Official resources

• Washington State Patrol Collision Reports — online and mail request instructions, availability guidance, contact details, and civilian-report options.
• WRECR Collision Report Search — official online report search and purchase.
• Washington DOL: Reporting collision damage — officer and driver reporting responsibilities.
• WSP OMVCR — online civilian Motor Vehicle Collision Report submission.
• Washington State Patrol public-records portal — WSP’s public-records request system; use the investigating local agency’s records process when that agency holds the report.

Sources

1. Washington State Patrol, “Collision Reports”.
2. Washington State Department of Licensing, “Reporting collision damage”.
3. RCW 46.52.030, “Accident reports”; RCW 46.52.070, “Police officer’s report”.
4. RCW 46.52.080 and RCW 46.52.083, report access and interested parties.
5. WAC 446-85-010, “Accident-reporting threshold”.
6. WSP Request for Copy of Collision Report form.