How to Get a State-Level Car accident Report in Ashley County, Arkansas

Short answer

For a copy of an Arkansas car accident report, start with the Arkansas State Police (ASP) Car accident Records Section. ASP describes itself as the statutory repository for motor-vehicle car accident investigation records, and Arkansas’s state service portal describes ASP as the central repository for statewide car accident reports. You can use the official Car accident Report Online Purchase System or send an official mail request to ASP. The ASP page also says its search includes reports prepared by local and county law-enforcement agencies. ASP Car accident Records

If a city police department or county sheriff initially generated the report, ASP says the copy in its repository is a duplicate of the record routinely available from that original department. Contact the agency that first made the report if you need its local copy or ASP has not yet made the record available.

Immediate checklist

1. Write down the car accident report number if an officer gave you one. If you do not have it, gather the car accident date, approximate time, highway or street, county, and the name of at least one driver.
2. If you were involved, have a copy of your driver license or identification card ready for a mail request. A parent or legal guardian requesting for a juvenile involved in the car accident needs the juvenile’s birth certificate and the parent’s or guardian’s driver license or ID. ASP involved-person mail form
3. Use ASP’s individual online search. A car accident report number alone can be used; otherwise, the search accepts identifying information such as a name, date of birth, driver license number, or car accident date.
4. Allow for the state’s stated processing window before assuming a report is missing. The online system says most reports are accessible within 10 business days after the car accident; ASP’s records page says reports may generally be ordered within 10 days after a trooper’s report is completed and sent to the Little Rock repository.
5. If the report involves a juvenile occupant, call the ASP Car accident Records Section at 501-618-8130 rather than relying on the regular online path. ASP online system

Who reports what in Arkansas

These are different steps. Getting a copy does not itself notify police or make an insurance claim.

Calling or notifying law enforcement. Arkansas Act 815 amended Ark. Code § 27-53-202 to require a driver to notify the nearest law-enforcement agency immediately when a car accident results in injury or death, or in apparent total property damage of $3,000 or more. The act also says all persons involved must make themselves readily available to the investigating officer or officers. This is a notification rule with its stated threshold; it should not be read as a rule for every possible car accident. Act 815 (official Arkansas General Assembly text)

The investigating officer’s record. The report available from ASP is a car accident-investigation record. It may be an ASP report or a local or county agency report that appears in the state repository. If a fatal-car accident summary is available online, do not treat it as the final report: ASP says a fatal car accident summary is preliminary information and is not an official highway-car accident investigation report. ASP fatal-car accident-summary notice

Separate driver, motor-vehicle, insurer, public-entity, or lawsuit steps. The official car accident-record sources on this page explain police notification and how to obtain the investigation record. They do not provide a single separate driver self-report form, DMV filing procedure, insurer-notice timetable, public-entity notice process, or lawsuit deadline for a reader’s circumstances. This guide therefore does not supply one. A report copy can be useful for your own records; use the car-accident evidence checklist to organize what you have, and follow any instructions you receive from the relevant agency or insurer.

How to request the report

Use the official online system

Go to the ASP Car accident Report Online Purchase System, choose the individual report search, and enter at least one search field. ASP says the report number is enough by itself. The portal says reports are delivered electronically if available. It also links to a VIN search, which is a search tool rather than a substitute for the individual report request.

The online landing page says a statutory fee of $25 per requested report. However, ASP’s car accident-records page and its current mail forms distinguish between requesters: $10 per report for a person involved in the car accident and $25 per report for a person not involved. Because the official online landing page and mail instructions present the fee differently, check the price displayed in the purchase flow or call the Car accident Records Section before paying if your requester status affects the charge. ASP Car accident Records | online portal

Send an official mail request

ASP provides separate mail forms for an individual involved in the car accident and a person not involved. Both forms request a name, contact information, mailing address, report number if known, and insurance claim number. If the report number is unknown, they ask for the car accident date, time, street or highway location, county, and other identifying information. The non-involved-person form also asks for the name and date of birth of someone known to have been involved. Complete the form as fully as possible and mail it with payment and any required documents to:

Arkansas State Police — Car accident Records Section
One State Police Plaza Drive
Little Rock, AR 72209

For an involved person, the form directs payment by check or money order payable to Arkansas State Police and requires a driver license or ID copy. For a non-involved requester, the form directs payment by check or money order payable to Arkansas State Police. Involved-person form | non-involved-person form

ASP also says a requested report can be returned by email or fax if those details are supplied on the mail form.

What to do when the record is unavailable or held elsewhere

First, check the search information. The exact report number is the simplest online lookup. Without it, use the car accident date and a driver’s identifying details online, or provide the date, time, location, county, and driver name on a mail form. A small difference in the date, county, road name, or spelling can make a search harder.

Second, consider the stated availability window. “Most” reports are available within 10 business days after the car accident, and ASP says supervisor-checked trooper reports are forwarded to the repository and can generally be ordered within 10 days after completion. Those are agency estimates, not a promise that every report will appear on a particular day. Contact the Car accident Records Section at 501-618-8130 if the window has passed or you need help locating a record. ASP Car accident Records

Third, use the original local or county agency as the official fallback. ASP expressly says local and county investigation records in its repository are duplicates of records routinely available where the report was first generated. Ask that department’s records unit for its copy and provide the same identifying details. The ASP page does not set out a separate statewide procedure for every other type of investigating agency; where an agency says it keeps its own record, request the report from that agency directly.

Do not route an ordinary car accident-copy request through ASP’s general Freedom of Information Act inbox. ASP’s FOIA page specifically says all car accident-record requests should go to the Car accident Records Section. The FOIA page’s Arkansas-citizen requirement applies to FOIA requests; it is not presented there as the car accident-record purchase rule. ASP FOIA instructions

Official resources

• Arkansas State Police Car accident Records — repository, mail forms, address, timing, and Car accident Records Section phone number.
• ASP Car accident Report Online Purchase System — official electronic purchase portal and order-status link.
• Arkansas government Car accident Reports service page — state portal directing users to ASP individual and bulk systems.
• What to do after a car accident — a general evidence-and-next-steps resource.

Sources

• Arkansas State Police, “Crash Records”
• Arkansas State Police, “Crash Reports” online portal
• Arkansas State Police, individual online report search
• Arkansas State Police, mail request forms for involved and non-involved requesters
• Arkansas General Assembly, Act 815 of 2023
• Arkansas State Police, “Fatal Crash Summaries”
• Arkansas State Police, FOIA request instructions