How to get a car accident report in Rhode Island
Rhode Island provides crash reports statewide through BuyCrash (LexisNexis) — Rhode Island — including crashes handled by local police and county sheriffs.
Official source
BuyCrash (LexisNexis) — Rhode Island
Official Rhode Island crash-report source — ~$10-15 online (agency report fee + BuyCrash service/processing fee); RISP direct mail-in is a flat $15 by check/money order. Online fee NOT live-verified — the portal returned HTTP 403 to automated fetch.. Covers agencies statewide.
Open the official portal→Source: Rhode Island — BuyCrash (LexisNexis) — Rhode Island. Checked 2026-07-24. Details can change — always confirm with the official source.
Step by step
- Identify the investigating agency and gather crash details. Determine who worked the crash — a city/town police department or the RI State Police — and collect the driver's name, the date and location of the crash, and the report/case number if you have it. Rhode Island has no county police or sheriff road patrol, so every crash is handled by a municipal PD or RISP.
- Go to BuyCrash and select Rhode Island + the agency. Visit BuyCrash (www.BuyCrash.com, which routes to buycrash.lexisnexisrisk.com), choose Rhode Island, and pick the investigating agency. Nearly every RI municipal PD and all RISP barracks upload their crash reports here.
- Search for and locate your report. Search by report/case number, or by driver last name + crash date. Reports are generally available about 72 hours after the report is taken (roughly 24-48 hours after the agency uploads it to the portal).
- Pay the fee and download the PDF. Pay the online fee (about $10-15, the agency report fee plus a BuyCrash service fee) and download the report immediately as a PDF.
- Alternative — request RISP reports directly by mail. For a State Police crash, mail the RI State Police Accident Bureau (311 Danielson Pike, North Scituate, RI 02857) the driver's name, accident date and report number, a $15 check/money order payable to 'The State of Rhode Island,' and a stamped self-addressed envelope. Fatal and still-under-investigation crashes must be obtained this way, not online.
- Review the report and use it. Check the report for errors (names, plates/VINs, insurance, date/location, diagram) and use it to file your insurance claim; request a correction from the investigating agency if anything is wrong.
State police / highway patrol crashes
RI State Police crash reports: online at www.BuyCrash.com (RISP HQ and all barracks are listed jurisdictions on the portal), OR by mail / in person to the Rhode Island State Police Accident Bureau, 311 Danielson Pike, North Scituate, RI 02857. Mail requests must include the driver's name, the accident date, and the report number, a $15 check or money order payable to 'The State of Rhode Island' (fee per R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-28-37), and a stamped self-addressed envelope. Reports are usually available ~72 hours after being taken. Fatal crashes and crashes still under investigation cannot be obtained online and must be requested directly from the RISP Accident Bureau.
Crashes handled by local police or sheriffs
Crashes worked by local city/town police departments use the SAME statewide portal: go to BuyCrash (buycrash.lexisnexisrisk.com), select Rhode Island, and choose that municipal PD — nearly every RI department (Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Pawtucket, Newport, Woonsocket, etc.) uploads its crash reports there. Rhode Island counties have no county government and sheriffs do not run road patrol or investigate crashes, so there is no separate county-sheriff channel. If a specific department is ever not on BuyCrash, request the report directly from that department's records division.
Rhode Island agencies (41)
Pick the agency that responded to your crash for its exact request process:
- Barrington Police Department
- Bristol Police
- Burrillville Police
- Charlestown Police
- Coventry Police Department
- Cranston Police Department
- Cumberland Police
- East Greenwich Police
- East Providence Police
- Foster Police
- Glocester Police
- Hopkinton Police Department
- Jamestown Police
- Johnston Police
- Lincoln Police Department
- Little Compton
- Middletown Ri Police
- Narragansett Police
- Newport Police
- North Kingstown Police
- North Providence Police
- North Smithfield Police
- Pawtucket Police
- Portsmouth Police
- Providence Police Department
- Rhode Island State Police- Chepachet
- Rhode Island State Police- Hope Valley
- Rhode Island State Police- Hq
- Rhode Island State Police- Lincoln
- Rhode Island State Police- Portsmouth
- Rhode Island State Police- Wickford
- Richmond Police
- Scituate Police
- Smithfield Police
- South Kingstown Police Department
- Tiverton Police
- Warren Police Deparment
- Warwick Police
- West Greenwich Police
- West Warwick Police
- Westerly Police
After you get the report
Use the report to file/support your auto-insurance claim — it documents the involved drivers, vehicles, insurance carriers, the officer's narrative and diagram, and any citation or fault indication that insurers rely on. Read it carefully for errors (misspelled names, wrong plate/VIN, incorrect insurance, wrong date/location, or a mistaken diagram) and ask the investigating agency to amend it if something is incorrect, since an error can affect your claim or liability determination.