Georgia · Records Guide

How to Get a Georgia Accident Report

The single biggest reason people cannot find their report is that they are asking the wrong agency. Here is how to tell who has yours, what each one charges, how long each one takes, and what the report will and will not answer.

Which agency has your Georgia accident report?

Georgia has no single public counter for accident reports. The report belongs to the agency whose officer worked the scene, and that agency decides how you get it and what you pay.

The jurisdiction rule is written into the reporting statute itself. Under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-273, a driver in an accident causing injury, death, or property damage of $500.00 or more must give notice to the local police department if the accident happened inside a municipality, and to the county sheriff's office or the nearest state patrol office if it happened outside one.

That produces four practical possibilities:

One accident, one report, one agency. If you request from the wrong one, you do not get a slower answer — you get no answer at all, because that agency genuinely does not have it.

How to tell which agency worked your accident

Before you pay anyone anything, work out who wrote the report:

Attention: a tow company, a body shop or a rental desk telling you "the report will be online" is not the same as knowing which agency filed it. Ask them which agency responded, and confirm it yourself.

Hurt in a Georgia accident?

Get a straight answer.Before you talk to anyone.

Ask what a police report actually establishes, what an adjuster is allowed to ask, and how long you have to act.

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How to get a Georgia State Patrol crash report

Georgia State Patrol reports are held by the Georgia Department of Public Safety. DPS covers three law enforcement divisions — Georgia State Patrol, Capitol Police and the Motor Carrier Compliance Division — and it is explicit that it holds nothing else. In its own words: "Similar reports prepared by municipal and county police departments, sheriffs' offices or other state agencies are not available through EPORTS."

There are two routes.

1. Online, through EPORTS

DPS runs an online records portal called EPORTS — the Efficient Purchase of Records Transfer System. DPS describes it as "a fast, easy, and secure online system designed for individuals to request and receive copies of DPS-prepared reports - traffic citations, motor vehicle crash reports, incident reports, and arrest reports."

The portal is at eports.gamccd.net/orportal. You can search as a guest or as a registered user. DPS says requests can be submitted any time, but "responsive, available reports are retrieved, reviewed, and redacted by us, as well as produced to you during office hours, M-F, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m." Reports come back as a PDF download.

The search screen is titled "Open Records Request Form." DPS says two fields are mandatory: "You must provide the correct timeframe for the 'Incident Date' and indicate the 'Request Type' (i.e. citation, crash, or incident report)." Everything else — report number, names — narrows the results.

2. By mail, email or fax, through the Open Records Unit

DPS also accepts requests directly. Its open records page lists the Open Records Unit at 959 United Avenue, SE, Atlanta, GA 30316, phone (404) 624-7591, fax (404) 624-7529. There is an Open Records Request Form (PDF), though DPS notes "DPS does not require its use."

DPS says the mail and email route is slower on purpose: "a request made by mail or email requires DPS to take additional steps, which therefore requires additional processing time."

What Georgia DPS charges and how long it takes

DPS publishes both numbers plainly.

Cost. "The cost for an uncertified electronic copy of a single crash report is $5.00. Each incident report is $2.00. The first citation is free, and each citation requested thereafter, received during a 24-hour work cycle, is $1.00 each." Payment is by credit or debit card — DPS says EPORTS accepts Visa and MasterCard and "cannot accept electronic checks or Discovery cards."

Timing. "Crash reports and incident reports are generally prepared and available within three to five business days of the occurrence, although multi-vehicle crashes and those resulting in serious injury or death often require additional completion time."

That second clause matters more than people expect. The accidents where the report is most valuable — a fatality, a serious injury, a multi-vehicle pileup — are precisely the ones DPS says take longer.

How long you can re-download it. DPS says a registered user can view or download the record for three years; a guest can do the same using the reference ID number from the confirmation email.

How to request from a county or city department

There is no statewide script for local agencies. What there is, is a pattern — and once you recognize it, any Georgia department becomes readable.

Because these details are set department by department, do not assume a neighboring county's fee applies to yours. Below are the agencies whose published terms we verified directly.

Agency comparison: method, fee and turnaround

Every row below is quoted from the agency's own published material. Agencies not listed here were not checked — that is not a statement that they charge more or less.

Sources, in order: Georgia DPS EPORTS FAQ; GDOT crash reporting page and Individual Accident Report Request form; City of Atlanta 311 knowledge base; Cobb County Police accident reports page; DeKalb County Police records sheet; Gwinnett County Police accident reports page; Savannah Police Department reports page. All linked at the bottom of this page.

What GDOT has, and when to ask GDOT instead

The Georgia Department of Transportation does not send officers to accidents, but it ends up with every report. GDOT describes itself as "the designated state agency for managing and storing the states crash reports in the GEARS database" — the Georgia Electronic Accident Reporting System.

That is not an accident of habit. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-278 puts the commissioner of transportation in charge of prescribing "uniform motor vehicle accident reports and reporting procedures which shall be used by all police officers, whether state, county, or municipal." That is why a report from a small-town department looks identical to one from Georgia State Patrol.

GDOT tells officers to "Submit the original crash report within three (3) business days to the Department of Transportation." So the state copy lags the local copy slightly.

For the public, GDOT's crash reporting page says: "Police crash reports are available through Buycrash. Crash reports can be purchased directly via the BuyCrash website or by mailing a request to GDOT via the GDOT Request Form."

The mail-in route has its costs printed on the form itself: "Reports Cost $5 each. Additional $2 charge for certified report, if requested," paid by money order or cashier's check, no cash or personal checks, with the report mailed back. The form also carries GDOT's own caution in capitals: "IT WILL TAKE AT THE LEAST TWO WEEKS TO COMPLETE THIS REQUEST." Mail goes to the Georgia Department of Transportation, 935 United Ave. SE, Bldg 24, Atlanta, GA 30316.

Go to GDOT when you are not sure which local agency responded, or when the responding agency is small and has no records portal of its own. Go to the responding agency when you want it faster.

What information you need before you request

The DPS open records form is the clearest checklist Georgia publishes, and it works as preparation for almost any agency. It asks for:

The DPS instructions add a line worth taking seriously: "Please provide as much information as is available to you. Correct spelling is important!" GDOT makes the same point about its mail-in form — "THERE CAN BE SPELLING AND ENTRY ERRORS ON THE REPORT, THIS CAN IMPACT OUR ABILITY TO QUICKLY LOCATE YOUR REQUESTED REPORT."

If a search returns nothing, DPS says to add criteria rather than assume the report does not exist: "If there were no results returned with your initial search, you should enter other available search criteria."

Who is entitled to a copy

Georgia treats accident reports differently from other public records. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(5) exempts "Individual Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reports" from open disclosure "except upon the submission of a written statement of need by the requesting party."

The same paragraph then protects the people in the accident: "any person or entity whose name or identifying information is contained in a Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report shall be entitled, either personally or through a lawyer or other representative, to receive a copy of such report."

The statute defines "need" as a list of connections. In the statute's order, a requester who:

This is why EPORTS asks for your connection. As DPS puts it: "Georgia law requires a sufficient statement of need for anyone to acquire a crash report... By utilizing EPORTS, you must simply identify your lawfully recognized connection to the crash event or parties."

The statute also blocks bulk pulls: these reports "shall not be available in bulk for inspection or copying by any person absent a written statement showing the need for each such report." And it attaches a consequence to any requester who knowingly makes a false statement — a false statement is "a violation of Code Section 16-10-20."

What the Georgia Open Records Act actually gives you

Accident reports sit inside the broader Georgia Open Records Act, and its rules govern anything the crash report process does not.

Response time. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71 requires agencies to produce responsive records "within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receipt of a request." If some records exist but cannot be produced that fast, the agency must, within those three business days, "provide the requester with a description of such records and a timeline for when the records will be available."

Records that do not exist yet. The same paragraph says nothing "shall require agencies to produce records in response to a request if such records did not exist at the time of the request." A three-business-day clock on a response is not a three-business-day clock on an unwritten report.

Cost. Copying is capped at "10¢ per page for letter or legal size documents." Search, retrieval and redaction time may be charged at no more than "the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee" qualified to do the work — and "no charge shall be made for the first quarter hour." Where a specific fee is set by law, that specific fee applies instead, which is how $5.00 crash report fees coexist with a 10¢ page cap.

Estimates. If an agency will seek more than $25.00, it must tell you within three business days and give an estimate. Above $500.00, it may require prepayment.

Redaction. DPS explains what gets blacked out: "all lawfully protected personal and confidential information, including phone numbers, day and month of birth, and medical information, will be redacted or hidden from view."

Form of request. A request may be made orally or in writing — but § 50-18-71 says the Act's enforcement provisions "shall be available only to enforce compliance and punish noncompliance when a written request is made." Put it in writing.

Holding a report full of codes?

Get a straight answer.Before you talk to anyone.

Ask what a police report actually establishes, what an adjuster is allowed to ask, and how long you have to act.

Trained on thousands of top injury lawyers — not a chatbot guessing.Answers in minutes, day or night.No forms. No spam. No callbacks.

1-866-CALL-HIM (225-5446)

Free24/7Any question

What a Georgia accident report contains

Every Georgia agency fills out the same document: the Georgia Motor Vehicle Crash Report, form GDOT-523. GDOT calls it "the official document used in the collection and dissemination of crash data by Georgia's law enforcement agencies."

Reading the current form, it collects:

Two boxes at the top of the form are easy to miss and matter later: Corrected Report and Sup To Original. They are how Georgia tracks whether the version in your hand is the first one.

How to read the codes on the report

Most of what you just read is not written out on the report. It is entered as numeric codes — the contributing factor that decided fault may appear as two digits in a box.

GDOT publishes a translation sheet, the Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report Overlay, and DPS points to the same document in its EPORTS FAQ: "The Georgia Motor Vehicle Crash Report Overlay is available for download... Use the Overlay to interpret codes provided on the crash report."

What to do if the report isn't ready yet

An empty search result usually means unfinished, not missing. DPS says so directly: "If you are attempting to search for a recent crash or incident report prepared by DPS law enforcement, and you receive no results, it is likely such report is not ready; you should try your search again later."

What to do in the meantime:

Attention: insurance adjusters do not wait for the report. Calls often come within a day or two of the accident, while the document that describes what happened does not exist yet. That gap is the single most common reason people end up describing an accident from memory, under pressure, with nothing in front of them.

What to do if the report has an error

Errors happen — a misspelled name, a wrong tag, a direction of travel reversed, an insurance policy number transposed.

The correction comes from the agency that wrote the report. Not from GDOT, not from BuyCrash, not from your insurer.

Georgia also draws a firm line between two different things:

Practically: contact the records unit of the responding agency, ask for the investigating officer by name and badge number from the report, and put the correction in writing with whatever documents you have. A factual error — a wrong VIN, a wrong address — is a different conversation from a disagreement with the officer's conclusions about fault, and agencies treat them differently.

For questions about how the report itself was completed, GDOT lists its Crash Reporting Unit at 935 United Ave. SE, Bldg. 24, Atlanta, GA 30316, and the email [email protected].

What the report will not tell you

Getting the document is the easy half. Here is what it does not do.

The report is one officer's account, recorded in code, of a scene they arrived at after it was over. It records who was suspected at fault. It does not decide your claim, it does not calculate what your injury is worth, it does not tell you what an adjuster is allowed to ask you, and it does not tell you which of the deadlines running against you have already started.

It also cannot tell you what its own contents mean for you specifically — that a contributing-factor code was entered against you, that your restraint status is recorded a particular way, that a citation number appears in a box, that the injury field for one occupant says one thing and the hospital paperwork says another.

Those are the questions people are actually asking when they go looking for the report. The report does not answer them. That is what HIM is for.

Hurt in a Georgia accident?

Get a straight answer.Before you talk to anyone.

Ask what a police report actually establishes, what an adjuster is allowed to ask, and how long you have to act.

Trained on thousands of top injury lawyers — not a chatbot guessing.Answers in minutes, day or night.No forms. No spam. No callbacks.

1-866-CALL-HIM (225-5446)

Free24/7Any question

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a Georgia accident report?
You request it from the agency whose officer worked the accident. If Georgia State Patrol worked it, the report comes from the Georgia Department of Public Safety through its EPORTS system. If a city police department or a county sheriff's office worked it, you request it from that department. GDOT, which stores every Georgia crash report, points the public to BuyCrash or to a mail-in request form.

Which agency has my Georgia accident report?
The one that responded. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-273 tells drivers to notify the local police department if the accident happened inside a municipality, and the county sheriff's office or the nearest state patrol office if it happened outside one. The name on the paperwork the officer handed you, and the agency name on the exchange-of-information slip, are the fastest way to tell.

How much does a Georgia State Patrol crash report cost?
Georgia DPS publishes the price in the EPORTS FAQ: "The cost for an uncertified electronic copy of a single crash report is $5.00." Incident reports are $2.00 and the first citation is free.

How long after an accident is a Georgia crash report available?
Georgia DPS says crash and incident reports "are generally prepared and available within three to five business days of the occurrence, although multi-vehicle crashes and those resulting in serious injury or death often require additional completion time." Local departments publish their own timelines — Cobb County says 2-3 business days, Gwinnett County says four business days, Atlanta says 5-7 business days.

What is EPORTS?
EPORTS is the Georgia Department of Public Safety's online records system. DPS describes it as "a fast, easy, and secure online system designed for individuals to request and receive copies of DPS-prepared reports - traffic citations, motor vehicle crash reports, incident reports, and arrest reports." It covers Georgia State Patrol, Capitol Police and the Motor Carrier Compliance Division only.

What is BuyCrash?
BuyCrash is the outside vendor GDOT points the public to for police crash reports. GDOT's crash reporting page says "Police crash reports are available through Buycrash" and lists support at 1-866-215-2771. Several Georgia departments, including Atlanta, DeKalb County, Gwinnett County and Savannah, send report requests there as well.

Can I get a Georgia accident report for free?
Sometimes, depending on the agency. Cobb County charges nothing to people involved in the accident and $5.00 to everyone else. Savannah says reports can be emailed at no additional cost to the requestor when a valid email address is provided. Georgia DPS charges $5.00 for a crash report regardless of who asks.

What information do I need to request a crash report?
The Georgia DPS open records form asks for your name, mailing address, phone and email; the law enforcement agency that responded and the officer's name or badge number; the report number; the date of the crash; the full names of the people involved; and the city and county where it happened. EPORTS requires at minimum the incident date and the request type.

Who is allowed to get a copy of a Georgia accident report?
O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(5) says individual Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reports are released on a written statement of need, and that "any person or entity whose name or identifying information is contained in a Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report shall be entitled, either personally or through a lawyer or other representative, to receive a copy of such report." The statute then lists the connections that count as a need, including drivers, injured people, witnesses, property owners, insurers, attorneys and news media representatives.

Can I get someone else's accident report?
Only if you fit one of the categories of need written into O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(5). The same statute says these reports "shall not be available in bulk for inspection or copying by any person absent a written statement showing the need for each such report." Researchers are limited to accidents that happened more than 60 days before the request, with the name, street address, telephone number and driver's license number redacted.

How long does a Georgia agency have to respond to an open records request?
O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71 requires agencies to produce responsive records "within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receipt of a request." If the records exist but cannot be produced in three business days, the agency must describe them and give a timeline within that same period. Responding in three business days is not the same as the report existing in three business days.

How much can a Georgia agency charge for records?
Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, copying is capped at 10¢ per page for letter or legal size documents, search and retrieval time is billed at no more than the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee qualified to do the work, and "no charge shall be made for the first quarter hour." If the agency will seek more than $25.00, it has to tell you and give an estimate. Where a specific fee is set by law, that fee applies instead.

What do I do if my accident report has an error?
Corrections come from the agency that wrote the report, not from GDOT and not from your insurer. GDOT's crash reporting instructions tell officers that a fully corrected report should be submitted if corrections or changes are made to a previously submitted report that a complete report must be resubmitted rather than the changed fields alone, and that the Corrected Report box at the top of the form must be checked.

What is the difference between a corrected report and a supplement?
GDOT draws the line by whether the information is new or wrong. A supplement adds information that did not exist before, such as alcohol or drug test results, or additional occupants. A corrected report changes information that was already reported.

What do I do if the report is not ready yet?
Georgia DPS says that if you search EPORTS for a recent report and get no results, "it is likely such report is not ready; you should try your search again later." Fatal accidents and multi-vehicle accidents take longer. Nothing about the wait stops an insurance adjuster from calling you first.

What does a Georgia accident report contain?
The Georgia Motor Vehicle Crash Report, form GDOT-523, collects the date, time and location of the accident including latitude and longitude; each driver's name, address, date of birth, license and insurance policy information; vehicle year, make, model, VIN and tag; who is suspected at fault; alcohol and drug test type and results; first and most harmful event; operator, vehicle and roadway contributing factors; posted speed and traffic control; citation numbers with the Code section charged; a narrative; a diagram; property damage and witness information; and an occupant block with injury, ejection, airbag, safety equipment and hospital details.

How do I read the codes on a Georgia crash report?
Most of the report is numeric codes rather than words. GDOT publishes a Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report Overlay, and the EPORTS FAQ points to the same document: "Use the Overlay to interpret codes provided on the crash report."

How long are Georgia crash reports kept?
Georgia DPS says "the state retention schedule for crash reports, incident reports, and citation is three (3) years plus current year" and that documents outside that schedule are no longer available. GDOT says images of paper reports are retained for 10 years under its retention policy.

Does GDOT have my accident report?
Yes. GDOT is "the designated state agency for managing and storing the states crash reports in the GEARS database," and officers are told to submit the original crash report to GDOT within three business days. GDOT tells the public to buy reports through BuyCrash or to mail in its Individual Accident Report Request form.