How to Get a State-Level Crash Report in Virginia

Short answer

For a reportable crash in Virginia, the state-level record repository is the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). DMV says it maintains the official record of all reportable crashes in the Commonwealth. Request a copy from DMV—not from the Virginia State Police—by sending either a written request or the official Information Request (CRD-93) form with payment. DMV lists mail, fax, and in-person submission; the fee is $8 per crash report. 1

This is a statewide route, including when a local law-enforcement officer investigated a reportable crash and forwarded the report to DMV. Virginia State Police specifically directs people seeking crash reports, including crash-report FOIA requests, to DMV. 3

Immediate checklist

If the crash has just happened and it caused an injury or death, the driver or someone acting for the driver must immediately notify a law-enforcement officer. This notice rule is different from obtaining a later copy of a report. 5
Write down the crash date, approximate time, street or highway, and city, town, or county. Keep the driver name and driver’s license number if available.
Confirm that you are an eligible requester, such as a person involved or injured, the owner of involved vehicle or property, an authorized representative, or an authorized insurance representative.
Send DMV a written request or CRD-93 form by mail, fax, or in person, with the required $8 payment.
Keep a copy of what you submit. DMV says it will return the fee if it cannot find a report. 1

Who reports what in Virginia

Several records and notifications can be involved in a crash. They are not interchangeable.

Category	What the official source says	What it means for a report copy
Immediate notice to law enforcement	A driver involved in a crash resulting in injury or death, or someone acting for the driver, must immediately give notice to a law-enforcement officer. 5	This is a crash-time notification requirement. It is not a DMV copy request.
Investigating officer’s report	An officer who investigates a motor-vehicle crash involving injury, death, or apparent total property damage of $3,000 or more must forward a written report to DMV within 24 hours after completing the investigation. 6	This is the police report that may be available through the statewide DMV record process. The 24-hour forwarding rule is not a promise that a copy is already available to a requester.
Voluntary DMV crash report	A person involved in a crash involving injury, death, or property damage, or one where there is reason to believe a vehicle was uninsured, may make a written report to the DMV Commissioner on the Department’s form. 7 DMV describes FR200 as the accident-report form that a driver, vehicle owner, or representative may submit. 8	An FR200 is a voluntary DMV report. It does not turn into an investigating officer’s crash report.
Crash-report record and retention	DMV says it keeps the official record of reportable crashes in Virginia. The statute requires the Department to maintain reports under specified crash-report sections for at least 36 months from the crash date. 1	Statewide access is for reportable crashes in DMV’s record, not a promise that every incident has a police report.

The official materials reviewed for this page describe the police/DMV report and record process. They do not provide a single statewide insurer-notice rule, public-entity notice rule, or lawsuit deadline to apply to every crash, so those subjects are not treated as report-copy requirements here.

Who may request a complete report

DMV says it will release a complete crash report to a person involved in the crash or that person’s authorized representative. Its list includes drivers, passengers, injured people, owners of vehicle or property involved at the time of the crash, personal representatives of someone involved, injured, or killed, attorneys representing those people, authorized insurance-company representatives, and a parent or legal guardian of a minor injured or killed. 1

Virginia Code § 46.2-380 likewise limits inspection to specified people and entities, including an involved or injured person, an involved vehicle or property owner, their attorneys, certain authorized insurance representatives, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or its authorized agent. It also provides access in stated circumstances for personal representatives and for a parent or guardian of a person under 18 who was injured or killed. 2 The CRD-93 form asks the requester to identify the applicable role and certify the request. 9

In practical terms, a complete report is not an unrestricted public-record download. Use the role that actually applies to you, and do not select a category for which you cannot truthfully certify eligibility.

How to request the DMV record

DMV offers two request formats: a written request or CRD-93. For a written request, include your crash involvement, crash date and time, crash location (street and city, town, or county), the driver’s name if you were not the driver, and your driver’s license number if you were involved. 1

CRD-93 has a dedicated Police Crash Report section. It asks for the requester’s details, requester category, crash date, time, street or highway location, city/county/town, driver name and license number, and any listed passenger or pedestrian names. DMV instructs people requesting a police crash report to provide as much information as possible. The form must be signed. 9

Submit the request using one of DMV’s listed methods:

Method	DMV instruction
Mail	Send the request and payment to Customer Records Work Center, Room 514, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, P.O. Box 27412, Richmond, VA 23269. Mail payment must be a check or money order. 1
Fax	Fax to (804) 367-0390. Include the completed License, ID Card and Records Payment Authorization for fax payment. 1
In person	Visit a DMV customer service center; DMV recommends an appointment. Cash, check, money order, or credit card are listed for in-person payment. 1

The charge is $8 for each police crash report requested. DMV says it will return the fee if no report is found and will send requested documents by U.S. Postal Service first-class mail. 1 The request page does not state a minimum waiting period or a delivery-time estimate. Do not treat the officer’s 24-hour forwarding deadline as a reader-specific availability deadline. 1

If local police or another agency investigated

Start with the DMV process for a reportable crash. DMV describes its record as statewide, and Virginia law requires an investigating officer’s report for the defined injury, death, or $3,000 apparent-property-damage circumstances to be forwarded to DMV. 1

Do not send a crash-report request to the Virginia State Police FOIA portal as a substitute. The State Police says crash-report FOIA requests must go to DMV, and its crash-report page gives the same direction. 3

A local law-enforcement agency may use a contracted provider to forward reports to DMV and to manage or disseminate copies, but any such dissemination must be consistent with the statutory access rules. 6 This means a city police department, sheriff, campus police department, tribal authority, or other investigating agency may have its own record or copy channel, but its local process is not a statewide replacement for the DMV request.

If DMV cannot find the report, its published instruction is to return the fee. The DMV page does not publish a universal referral procedure for a missing report. Identify the investigating agency from your crash paperwork or incident information and ask that agency’s records office whether it created a separate record and whether it has a locally published copy process. Do not assume that every local incident record was a reportable DMV crash report.

Documents and identifiers to gather

Before making the request, assemble the following information. It makes a manual search more precise and matches the fields DMV identifies for written and CRD-93 requests. 1

Your full name, contact details, and a truthful description of your connection to the crash.
Crash date, time, exact street or highway, and city, town, or county.
Driver name and, if available, driver’s license number.
Names of passengers or pedestrians listed in the crash information.
Your signed CRD-93 form or a written request containing the required details.
The correct payment method for mail, fax, or in-person submission.

If you need to organize other crash documents while you wait for the record, review the site’s car accident evidence checklist and guides.