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

Short answer

For a copy of a Minnesota law-enforcement car accident report, start with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS). Use its Car accident Record Request Form (PS2503). The current form states a $5 fee per copy and allows requests in person at DVS, at a full-service deputy registrar office, or by mail. DPS’s request instructions set out the process.

This is a request for an existing record, not a way to make a new car accident report. The current statute and DVS materials do not identify a general DVS driver self-report form for an ordinary car accident. A separate duty to notify police can still apply after an injury or death car accident, as explained below.

Immediate checklist

• Download and complete the official PS2503 Car accident Record Request. Sign it; DVS will not process an unsigned request from an authorized requester.
• Gather the date, location or highway, county, and law-enforcement case number if known. Add the involved people’s names and any available driver-license, VIN, or plate details.
• Choose a DVS request route: in person at DVS, through a full-service deputy registrar office, or by mail. Bring or include the identification the form calls for and pay the $5 copy fee.
• If the Minnesota State Patrol investigated and you need other data maintained by the Patrol, use the Minnesota State Patrol Records Request Center. DPS directs all non-body-camera State Patrol data requests there.
• If a local, campus, tribal, or other non-State-Patrol agency investigated and DVS cannot locate the record, ask that investigating agency for its own record and data-request procedure. Do not assume a State Patrol request will retrieve another agency’s file.

Who may request the state copy

DVS describes the eligible requester as a person involved in the car accident and recorded on the police report, such as a driver, passenger, pedestrian, vehicle owner, or owner of damaged property. An authorized agent may request for an eligible person. DVS says an insurer or attorney needs a signed release from a party involved. For a fatality, the qualifying next of kin, surviving spouse, or estate representative must provide proof of death.

The statute lists related, broader recipients for the officer report required by Minnesota Statutes section 169.09, subdivision 8, including an involved person, specified estate or next-of-kin representatives, certain people with injury or loss, their legal counsel, and insurer representatives. Read the statutory eligibility language if your role does not fit the DVS form’s examples.

The report is not an unrestricted public handout. DPS limits car accident information to authorized requesters, and the statute classifies reports and supplemental information as confidential except for listed disclosures. The statute also limits use of the report as evidence. Those rules concern the report itself, not necessarily every other record held by an investigating agency.

Who reports what after a Minnesota car accident

Calling or notifying law enforcement

If a driver knows or has reason to know a car accident caused bodily injury or death, Minnesota Statutes section 169.09, subdivision 6, requires notice by the quickest means: local police inside a municipality, State Patrol on a trunk highway, or the county sheriff. This rule is limited to bodily-injury or death car accidents; it is not a universal reporting rule for property-damage car accidents.

The investigating officer’s report

A peace officer who investigates a reportable car accident in the regular course of duty must submit a report to the commissioner within 10 days. For a public-right-of-way car accident, the listed triggers include a fatality; an injury with immediate treatment away from or at the scene; disabling damage requiring a tow; or damage to fixtures, infrastructure, or other property alongside or on a highway. The statute separately covers school-bus and commercial-motor-vehicle car accidents. These are officer-report rules, not a damage threshold for every driver.

A separate driver or DMV report

The current statute and DVS materials do not identify a general DVS driver self-report form for an ordinary car accident. The current state form, PS2503, is labeled a Car accident Record Request and is for obtaining a copy. It is not a driver self-report form. This article does not identify a current statewide DVS driver self-report submission process from the official sources above.

How to request the record from DVS

Complete all known PS2503 fields. The form requests the case number; location, county, and date; involved people; and available driver-license, date-of-birth, VIN, or plate information. It warns that DVS cannot complete a request with insufficient car accident information. Use the case number from an exchange sheet, citation, correspondence, or the investigating agency if available.

For an in-person request, the form says to present a driver’s license, government-issued identification card, or a notarized signature. For a mailed request, include a legible copy of a driver’s license or government-issued ID, or use a notarized signature. Pay $5 for each requested copy; the form instructs check or money-order payers to make it payable to DVS. The official page lists the DVS Records Unit mailing address and links to the full-service deputy registrar locator.

Keep a copy of what you submit. Use the current DVS vehicle-records procedure page for contact and request-route updates.

When the report is unavailable or held by another agency

First, confirm the investigating agency. A State Patrol car accident and a city-police car accident are not the same agency record. DVS is the state route for law-enforcement car accident-report copies, but the DPS sources do not promise that PS2503 will locate every separate document held by local police, sheriffs, campus police, tribal police, or another agency.

If the state request does not locate the record, ask the investigating agency for its car accident report or separate incident, dispatch, photo, or investigative records under that agency’s procedure. DPS directs data requests to the division that maintains the data; likewise, request locally maintained data from the local agency. For a State Patrol-held record other than the DVS copy, use the Patrol’s online Records Request Center. Local responses can differ from the DVS process.

Documents and identifiers to gather

Bring the completed, signed PS2503 form, required identification, and the $5 fee for each copy. For a mailed request, include the ID copy or notarized signature specified on the form. An authorized agent needs the signed release required by DVS; qualifying fatality requesters need DVS’s specified proof of death.

For matching, collect the car accident date, location and county, case number, involved people’s names, and available plate, VIN, and driver-license details.

For help preserving other practical information after a car accident, see AccidentFiling.ai’s car accident evidence checklist and what to do after a car accident.

Official resources

• Minnesota DPS: Request a car accident report — authorized requester categories, request methods, and the $5 fee.
• PS2503 Minnesota Car accident Record Request (PDF) — request fields, ID instructions, and mailing instructions.
• Minnesota Statutes section 169.09 — notification, officer-report, access, confidentiality, and fee rules.
• Minnesota State Patrol data request — State Patrol Records Request Center for other Patrol data.
• DPS public record requests — DPS data classifications and division-specific request guidance.
• More AccidentFiling.ai guides and resources.

Sources

• Minnesota Department of Public Safety, “Request a crash report.”
• Minnesota Department of Public Safety, “Minnesota Crash Record Request (PS2503).”
• Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, Minnesota Statutes section 169.09, “Collisions.”
• Minnesota Department of Public Safety, “Vehicle records request procedure.”
• Minnesota Department of Public Safety, “Minnesota State Patrol Public Records Center.”
• Minnesota Department of Public Safety, “Public access to government data.”