Crash Reports and CHP Investigations in Victorville, CA Requesting Records and Fixing Errors

Who is allowed to get a Highway Patrol report

The Highway Patrol releases a collision report to a proper party of interest, which its own instructions define as a driver, a passenger, a property owner, a vehicle owner, the parent of a minor, or the legal guardian of an individual. The request form asks the applicant to check only one of those boxes. Where only property was damaged, the applicant lists their own name and address in the driver or owner field. There is a separate designation for a government entity or an insurance company. If you are unsure whether you qualify, the agency's instruction is to contact any of its area offices to verify before submitting.

The mechanics of the request

The process is deliberately paper-based. Print and complete the collision request form, then submit it in person or by mail to the nearest area office. Photocopy your driver license or picture identification card and attach it to the request; if you have neither, the form must be certified by a notary. Submit the applicable fees. Once the agency has received the request, verified that the requester is a proper party of interest, and received payment, a copy of the report is mailed to the address on the form. If you do not know the exact collision date or location, the instructions ask for an approximate date and as much location detail as you can provide.

You do not have to travel to the office that took it

One practical detail saves a great deal of driving in a county this large. Any area office can obtain a copy of a collision report the Highway Patrol investigated, or arrange for one to be mailed to your address, regardless of which office filed it. Someone injured out on a rural route who has since moved down the hill does not need to return to the desert to collect a report. The statutory basis for release rests on interest rather than curiosity: Vehicle Code 20012 keeps the reports confidential and provides for release to persons who have a proper interest in them, which is the same logic the form's party-of-interest box implements.

Working out which agency has your report

State highway segments are ordinarily the Highway Patrol's. City streets inside an incorporated city are ordinarily the city police department's. Unincorporated territory falls to the Sheriff, and this valley has a great deal of it. The Sheriff's Victor Valley Station, at 11613 Bartlett Avenue in Adelanto, serves Adelanto, Helendale, Oro Grande, Silver Lakes, El Mirage, Spring Valley Lake, Oak Hills, Wrightwood and the unincorporated Victor Valley areas not served by Hesperia, Victorville or Apple Valley. Ask the responding officer which agency is writing the report and get the report number at the scene if you can, because that single number removes weeks of searching later.

The reports you are required to make yourself

Two obligations belong to the people involved rather than to an officer. Vehicle Code 20008 requires a written report of a collision resulting in injury or death to be forwarded within twenty-four hours to the Highway Patrol, or to the police department of an incorporated city where the crash happened there. And a report to the state motor vehicles department is due within ten days when anyone is injured, no matter how minor the injury, or killed, or when property damage exceeds one thousand dollars; that department states plainly the report is required in addition to any report made to a police agency, the Highway Patrol or an insurer, and it may be completed by the driver or by an insurance agent, broker or legal representative.

Exchanging information is its own statutory duty

Vehicle Code 16025 requires drivers involved in a collision to exchange specified information at the scene, including evidence of financial responsibility, with a violation punishable by a fine not exceeding two hundred fifty dollars. Vehicle Code 20003 separately sets out what a driver involved in an injury crash must provide, including name, current residence address, vehicle registration information and, on request, driver license identification, together with identification to any traffic or police officer at the scene. Getting that information in writing at the roadside, rather than trusting a photograph of an insurance card you never look at again, is the cheapest evidence-gathering step in the entire file.

What to do while you wait for the report

A report can take weeks, and everything else can be done in the meantime. Write your own account the same day, including the route number and postmile or nearest exit, the direction of travel, the lane, the time, the light and the wind. Photograph both vehicles, all four tires, the roadway and the striping before any repair or maintenance pass. Note the tow yard from the report or the officer, and ask in writing that the vehicle be held unrepaired. When the report does arrive, read it for errors in direction, lane, vehicle position and party numbering, because those factual details drive the insurer's first evaluation.