How to get a car accident report in Ohio

Step by step

1. Gather your crash details. Have your crash report number ready (from the officer's information-exchange card), or note the crash date, the county, and the law-enforcement agency that responded, plus a driver's last name.
2. Open the free ODPS Crash Retrieval portal. Go to ohtrafficdata.dps.ohio.gov/crashretrieval. No account, login, or payment is required — it is operated directly by the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
3. Search for your report. Enter the Crash Number or Document Number, or use the advanced search (crash date range, county, law-enforcement agency, and last name), then complete the CAPTCHA and submit.
4. View and download the report. Download the crash report as a copy. Note it can take up to about 6 weeks after the crash to appear, coverage is the past five years plus the current year, and the online copy is a statistical copy marked 'not an official document.'
5. Get a certified copy if needed. For an official/certified copy (for court or a disputed insurance claim), request it directly from the investigating agency's records division or the ODPS Public Records Unit in Columbus.

State police / highway patrol crashes

Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) crashes are in the same free ODPS Crash Retrieval portal (ohtrafficdata.dps.ohio.gov/crashretrieval) — search by crash number or select 'Ohio State Highway Patrol' (and the specific post) in the Law Enforcement Agency dropdown. The online copy is a statistical copy; for a certified/official OSHP report (court or insurance disputes) request it from the OSHP post that investigated the crash or the ODPS Public Records Unit. Note: statepatrol.ohio.gov subpages returned HTTP 404 during this session, so the OSHP-specific request page URL was not live-verified.

Crashes handled by local police or sheriffs

One statewide portal covers them. Ohio Rev. Code § 5502.11 requires every township, county, and municipal law-enforcement agency to forward crash reports to the ODPS Director, so city-PD and county-sheriff crashes appear in the free ODPS Crash Retrieval portal — select the responding department in the 'Law Enforcement Agency' dropdown (the list includes hundreds of municipal PDs, sheriff offices, and OSHP posts). For a certified/official copy, contact the investigating city police or county sheriff records division directly; some larger departments also offer their own online request page (occasionally via a paid third-party portal such as LexisNexis/Carfax), but the state portal is the free primary path. (Which specific Ohio local agencies use a third-party vendor was not live-verified.)

Ohio agencies (47)

Pick the agency that responded to your crash for its exact request process:

• Akron Police Department
• Austintown Police Department
• Batavia Police Department
• Bridgeport Police Department
• Brook Park Police Department
• Brookfield Police Department
• City of Hamilton Ohio Police Department
• Columbus Police Department
• Dayton Police Department
• Delaware Police Department
• Delhi Township Police Department
• Deshler Police Department
• Fairfield County Sheriff'S Office
• Fowler Police Department
• Franklin Township Police
• Garrettsville
• Geneva-On-the-Lake
• Green Springs Police Department
• Hartford Township Police Department
• Hicksville Police Department
• Hubbard City Police Department
• Lancaster Police Department
• Lisbon Police Department
• Mariemont Police Department
• Mcdonald Police Department
• Monroe County Sheriff'S Office Oh
• Montgomery Police Department
• Morrow Police Department
• Mount Orab Police Department
• New Middletown
• Oak Hill Police Department
• Olmsted Twp Police Department
• Orange Village Police Department
• Ottawa Hills Police Department
• Payne Police Department
• Perkins Township Police Department
• Roseville Police Department
• Saint Marys Police Department
• Springboro Police Department
• Toledo Police Department
• Washington Township, Lucas County
• Waverly Police Department
• Wellington Police Department
• West Liberty Police Department
• Westerville Police Department
• Williamsburg Police Department
• Xenia Police Department

After you get the report

Give the crash/report number to your insurer to open or support your claim. Review the report for errors — spelling of names, license-plate and insurance details, the crash diagram, and the officer's contributing-factor codes — and ask the investigating agency to file a correction or supplement if something is wrong. For litigation or any injury/fatality crash, obtain the certified official copy from the investigating agency rather than relying on the free statistical online copy.