You can get a police report after a car crash in Indiana by working with state representatives and paying a small fee. This official document contains the accident details and allows you to better understand how negligence led to your losses and which parties may be liable.
Requesting a police report gives you more evidence on which to build a possible civil case. You can work with Vaughan & Vaughan’s car accident lawyers in Indiana to use all available evidence to file a strong claim.
Aren’t Police Reports Part of Indiana’s Public Record?
You can generally find police incident and accident reports in Indiana’s public records. That said, different counties throughout the state have different policies as to how the average person can access information about a crash.
While you could browse the general archive to find the report you need, it’s often faster to secure your paperwork through official channels.
Your Case Will Get
The Attention It Deserves
Why Should You Request a Police Report?
You aren’t obligated to request a police report after a collision. Doing so, however, can help you decide how you want to move forward. As an accident victim, you have a right to recover the losses caused by someone else’s negligence.
Police reports contain a lot of information about your recent crash, including the following:
- The date, time, and location of the auto accident
- Each driver’s name, license plate number, address, and insurance information
- Descriptions of the injuries sustained by relevant parties
- Descriptions of all vehicles involved
- Relevant weather and road conditions
- A diagram of the incident
- Information about the nature of the accident
- Statements from drivers and bystanders
Most importantly, a police report contains the precinct’s assessment of fault. You can refer back to a police report to determine whether or not you may have the right to hold another party accountable for any losses you endured in a car crash.
The report will also note whether or not any parties involved in the collision received a ticket for criminal roadway misconduct. After reviewing your case, an attorney can explain how fault is determined for your car accident.
What’s the Difference Between Crash Reports and Police Reports?
While some people may use these two terms interchangeably, there are clear differences. However, both are important documents for your financial recovery process after a car crash.
Crash Report
You have a legal obligation to file a crash report with your insurance provider within ten days of your initial crash. The crash report you file can contain much of the same information that a police report does.
However, a crash report specifically helps your insurance companies determine how much compensation you may receive for your property damage and other losses through your existing coverage.
Police Report
This unbiased report is typically created by a police officer who responds to an accident scene. It documents the officer’s observations, witness statements, the extent of property damage, and any relevant physical evidence collected at the scene.
This document makes no statements regarding what compensation you or any other injured parties may deserve. You can use that opinion to help establish your case for compensation from the party responsible for your crash.
How Can You Request Access to a Car Accident Police Report?
There are a few different ways to secure a police report. That said, the means through which you secure your report varies depending on where you are in the Hoosier state.
Some counties require accident survivors to work with their county Sheriff’s Department Records Division to request their post-accident paperwork. Indiana also encourages you to go through Holt Sheets in Greenwood to secure a police report from the state.
That said, you can most often access your collision’s police report through BuyCrash. BuyCrash allows Indiana residents to purchase the document detailing the nature of a recent crash for no more than $12.
You can access your report courtesy of the platform’s in-site search engine, make your purchase, and then download the report as a PDF.
What Information Do Platforms Like BuyCrash Want From You?
BuyCrash requires you to create a profile on its site before it allows you to download a PDF of your police report.
The platform also requires you to have the following information on hand before it provides you with the correct accident report:
- The name of at least one driver involved in your crash
- The collision’s report number
- The city, county, and state in which the crash took place
- The date of the incident
- Your name, address, phone number, and email address
- The name of the law enforcement agency that responded to the crash scene
If you don’t know where to find key pieces of information, including your accident report number or the name of the agency that specifically responded to your crash, an Indiana personal injury lawyer can gather this information for you.
How Long Can It Take to Get a Police Report?
If you choose to secure your police report through BuyCrash, you can access it immediately upon paying the platform’s fee and downloading your PDF. That said, you need to wait for a police department to complete and file your report before you can download it. Most departments take up to five business days to get your report online or stored in their files.
BuyCrash then allows you to gain immediate access to the PDF of your accident’s police report.
Should you not find a report detailing your crash through BuyCrash, you may have to go through the police department that responded to your accident to get your paperwork.
It can take these departments a considerable amount of time to get back to you with a copy of your report, and they may have stipulations you need to agree to before allowing you to see your paperwork.
You can hire a car accident attorney in Indiana to help you communicate with the police department and obtain the paperwork you need to investigate the negligence that led to your crash.
Talk to an Indiana Attorney About Your Car Accident ASAP
Indiana makes the process of requesting and securing a car accident police report relatively straightforward. If you’re busy recovering from car accident injuries or don’t know how to interpret the data presented in your car accident claim, an attorney can simplify the process.
Vaughan & Vaughan can connect you with an Indiana car accident lawyer who can help you transform that data in a police report into an actionable civil claim. Also, if you get a lawyer immediately after the crash, they can use the fresh physical evidence at the accident scene to further strengthen your claim.
You can request a consultation with our attorneys courtesy of Vaughan & Vaughan’s contact form or by calling our representatives. Over the years, we have helped many victims through struggles; let us guide you through this difficult period. We’re ready to help you demand car accident damages from a liable party.
