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50 states · D.C.
A crash is chaos. This page is the calm list: the official places to report it, get the police report, find a lawyer, get free legal help, and deal with insurance — for your state. Every link goes to a government agency, bar association, or nonprofit. We don't earn a cent from any of it.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Quick answer
After a car accident: call 911 if anyone may be hurt, get out of traffic if you can, and save your dashcam footage before the camera records over it — many cameras loop within hours. Exchange license, registration, and insurance details, and photograph the cars, plates, road, and signs. Then report the crash under your state's rules. The shortest fixed deadlines are 72 hours, several states require immediate notice with no window at all, and five states require your own report even when police filed one. Pick your state below for its exact deadline, form, fee, and phone numbers.
If anyone might be hurt, call 911. Everything else waits.
Get safe. Out of traffic if you can move, hazards on.
Save your dashcam clip now. Most dash cams record over old footage — sometimes within hours. Pull the memory card or save the file before the loop takes it. How to preserve and send that footage →
Exchange and document. License, registration, insurance — and photos of the cars, plates, road, and signs.
Report it by your state's rules. Deadlines differ; your state's page has the specifics.
Each page carries that state's reporting deadline and threshold, how to get the crash report and what it costs, hit-and-run steps, lawyer referral numbers and consultation fees, free legal aid, and the insurance regulator — all traced to official sources.
No state matches that.
All 50 states and Washington, D.C. — each page verified against that state's own statutes, DMV, state police, bar association, and legal aid programs.
How to send dashcam footage to your insurance company →
Saving the original before the camera loops over it, why you should never edit the file, how to submit it, and the honest part most dashcam companies leave out — footage can be used against you too, so there are times to have a lawyer watch it first.
Car accident reporting requirements by state — all 50 states and D.C. →
Every deadline, damage threshold, report fee and wait time in one table. Useful if you crashed away from home and aren't sure whose rules apply, if you drive across state lines, or if you just want to see how your state compares. It also collects how each state decides fault, which ones require your own report on top of the officer's, what a lawyer's first half hour costs, and the administrative levers for going after an uninsured driver.
Free, 24/7 referrals to local help of every kind.
Find free or low-cost legal aid in your state.
American Bar Association lawyer-referral directory
Every state's official referral services.
USA.gov motor vehicle services
Your state's DMV, including crash-report rules.
State insurance department map (NAIC)
Where to get help with an insurer, in any state.
Every fact on these 51 pages was traced to a state statute, DMV or DOT, state police, bar association, or insurance department. Law-firm articles were used as leads and never as citations. Where sources conflicted — which happened constantly on damage thresholds — we went with the codified statute or the agency that actually receives the filing, and said so on the page rather than picking quietly.
Where we couldn't verify something to an official source, we left it out or routed you to the NAIC directory instead of guessing. You'll see that admitted openly on several pages. We're a two-person dashcam company, not a law firm, and a gap we can explain is worth more than a number we can't stand behind.
We also audit our own work. In August 2026 we re-checked all 51 state pages against each other and corrected 25 claims — mostly comparisons written early, before the full picture existed. The largest was Maine's widely cited 48-hour reporting deadline, which was actually repealed in 2003; the empty subsection heading is still in the statute, which is why the figure keeps circulating. Every comparative claim on this site now names the state that beats it, or it gets hedged.
Fees and phone numbers drift. Each page carries its own last verified date — and if you find something out of date or wrong, tell us at team@dashwatcher.com with the state name in the subject. We'll check it and fix it.
Dashwatcher is a dashcam company, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for a licensed attorney. Reporting rules, deadlines, and programs differ by state and change over time; verify everything with the official source before you rely on it. Links go to government agencies, bar associations, and nonprofits. Dashwatcher receives no payment from any organization listed.
From the team at Dashwatcher.
Last verified: August 9, 2026