How to Read a Police (Crash) Report and Its Codes

How do you read a police (crash) report?

Learning how to read a police report starts with one fact: a crash report follows a fixed structure, so you read it in order. Read the identifying header, then the parties and vehicles, then the scene diagram, then the officer's narrative, and finally the coded fields for contributing factors and injury severity. Each coded field maps to a legend printed on the form or in the state crash manual. When people search for a police report after a car accident, this crash report is the document they mean.

Read the sections in this sequence:

1. Header and identifying information: the report number, date, time, location, and the investigating agency and officer.
2. Parties and vehicles: each driver, passenger, and vehicle, usually labeled V1 and V2, with the insurers listed.
3. Witnesses: names and contact details for anyone who saw the collision.
4. Scene diagram: a drawn overhead view of vehicle positions and the point of impact.
5. Narrative: the officer's written account of what happened.
6. Coded fields: numbered contributing factors and injury-severity codes that map to a legend.

Once you can read the report, the next step is getting your own copy. Find the agency and channel for your crash in the national crash-report directory.

What do the different sections of a crash report mean?

The header carries the report number, date, time, and location, plus the investigating agency and officer. The parties section lists drivers, passengers, and witnesses with their vehicles and insurers. The diagram shows vehicle positions and the point of impact, and the narrative is the officer's written account of the collision. In Florida, the statute itself defines these required fields (Florida Statutes 316.066(1)(b)).

Each section does a specific job:

• Header: anchors the report to one incident through the case number, date, and the agency that holds it.
• Parties and vehicles: records who was involved, which vehicle each person was in, and the insurance carrier for each vehicle.
• Witnesses: preserves independent accounts separate from the drivers.
• Scene diagram: translates the officer's field measurements into positions and travel direction.
• Narrative: explains the diagram and the codes in plain sentences.
• Coded fields: compress conditions, factors, and injuries into standardized numbers and letters.

How do you read the contributing-factor codes on a crash report?

Contributing-factor fields are numbers, not words. Each number maps to a category on the form's legend, and those categories cover driver actions, road and weather conditions, and vehicle factors. The legend prints on the report itself or in the state's crash-report instruction manual, so you look up each number there. NHTSA's Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) standardizes these data categories across states, though each state assigns its own specific numbers.

Do not trust a code number you found on a random blog. The same number means different things on different state forms, so a "19" on a Texas CR-3 is not necessarily a "19" on a New York MV-104A. Find the legend that belongs to your state's form, then read your codes against it. The per-state table further down points to each official legend.

What is the KABCO injury-severity scale?

KABCO is the standard injury classification on crash reports, defined through NHTSA's MMUCC. It sorts every person in a crash into one of five levels, from a fatal injury down to no apparent injury. KABCO ranks injury severity only; it says nothing about who was at fault. The letters and their meanings are fixed:

Code	Injury severity
K	Fatal injury
A	Suspected serious injury
B	Suspected minor injury
C	Possible injury
O	No apparent injury (property damage only)

An officer assigns one KABCO code per person at the scene based on what is observed, not on a later medical diagnosis. A "C" for a possible injury can still matter for an insurance claim, so read the code next to each named person, not just the overall crash.

How can you tell who the officer marked at fault, and why is that not a legal finding?

An officer may note a contributing factor against one driver or issue a citation, but that notation is an observation, not a legal verdict. Fault is decided by insurers or a court, not by the report. In Florida, a driver's own crash statement is protected by law: the report and any statement in it "may not be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal" (Florida Statutes 316.066(4)).

So a crash report documents a collision; it does not prove guilt. Read the officer's fault notation as one piece of evidence that insurers and, if it comes to it, a court will weigh alongside photos, witness accounts, and the diagram. Fault rules differ by state, from at-fault systems to no-fault systems with mandatory personal injury protection. For any dispute about who was at fault, confirm the rule with a licensed attorney in your state.

Where is the report number on a crash report, and how do you use it?

The report or case number appears in the header, usually top-right. Use it, plus the crash date and the involved parties' names, to look up or buy the report through the agency's channel, whether that is LexisNexis BuyCrash, a state DOT portal, or the agency's own records division. That report number is also the identifier a crash report number lookup depends on, so copy it exactly.

Access varies by state, and no page can promise that anyone can get any report. Florida keeps a crash report confidential for 60 days and releases it in that window only to people involved and their insurers (Florida Statutes 316.066). Texas limits full reports to interested parties under Transportation Code 550.065; everyone else receives a redacted copy. To see the exact steps and channel for your crash, read how to request a copy of your report, or go straight to look up the agency that holds your report. For the rules on who qualifies, see who is allowed to get a crash report.

A crash report is a record of one collision, not a criminal history and not a background check. It documents an event; it is not a consumer report, and it must never be used to screen a tenant, employee, or applicant.

How do you read your state's crash-report code sheet?

Each state issues its own coded form and its own legend. Texas uses the CR-3 through TxDOT's CRIS system, New York uses the MV-104A police accident report, New Jersey uses the NJTR-1, and North Carolina uses the DMV-349. Find your state's legend on the official form or in that state's crash manual, then read your numbers against it.

Texas crash report (CR-3) codes

Texas records crashes on the CR-3, the Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report. The contributing-factor and unit codes are defined in the CR-3 instruction manual, and you buy the report through TxDOT's Crash Report Online Purchase System (CRIS) for $6 for a regular copy or $8 for a certified copy. Access to a full report is limited to interested parties under Transportation Code 550.065. To read Texas crash report codes, use the CR-3 legend, then reach the Texas portal through the Texas crash reports hub or the step-by-step guide to buying a Texas CR-3 from TxDOT CRIS.

New York crash report (MV-104A) codes

New York police file the MV-104A police accident report. Its numeric fields, including apparent contributing factors and vehicle codes, are defined in the New York DMV Police Accident Report manual. You order a certified copy online through the DMV for a $7.00 search fee plus a $15.00 report fee, and reports appear at least 14 to 60 days after the crash depending on how the report was filed. To decode NY police report codes, match each MV-104A field to the DMV manual's legend.

State	Form	Where the code legend lives	Official source
Texas	CR-3	On the CR-3 and in the TxDOT CR-3 instruction manual	TxDOT crash reports
New York	MV-104A	In the NY DMV Police Accident Report manual	NY DMV crash reports
New Jersey	NJTR-1	In the NJTR-1 Crash Report Manual (NJDOT)	NJDOT police crash reporting
North Carolina	DMV-349	In the North Carolina Crash Report Instruction Manual	NCDMV crash reports

What should you do if something on the report is wrong?

Contact the investigating agency's records division that produced the report, in writing, with supporting evidence such as photos, witness details, or documents. Agencies usually add a supplemental or amended report rather than erase the original. A factual error like a misspelled name, a wrong date, or an incorrect plate is the correctable kind; an officer's opinion about fault is much harder to change.

Work the correction this way:

1. Identify the agency named in the header, and its records division.
2. Put the error in writing, citing the exact field and the correct fact.
3. Attach evidence that proves the factual error.
4. Ask how the agency records changes, since most file a supplement rather than overwrite the original.
5. Escalate a fault dispute separately, because a fault opinion is rarely reversed and may need your own attached statement.

If the concern is personal information on a published record rather than a factual error, you can request a correction or removal through our free process. Once your report reads correctly, use its report number to pull your own copy through the right channel in the national crash-report directory.