When victims need compensation for car accident injuries in Columbus, any information about a crash, including a report from law enforcement, could help their claims.
Victims can download completed accident reports online or get them by going to the Columbus Police Department after a crash. Whichever retrieval method you pick, you must give your personal information and accident details to get the report. You might have to wait about a week for the police to finish and file the report in Columbus. After you retrieve the report, our lawyers can review it with you and explain what its various sections mean. We can check to make sure the report is accurate, see if it contains eyewitnesses’ phone numbers, and review it for any additional information that could strengthen your recovery against a negligent driver.
Call (410) 694-7291 for a free case analysis from the Columbus, GA car accident attorneys of Rice, Murtha & Psoras today.
Ways to Get Police Car Accident Reports in Columbus, GA
After car crashes in Georgia, victims may get their accident reports from the local police departments that responded to their accidents. There is also the option to download incident reports, which might be preferable, especially if you suffer from serious car accident injuries.
When police departments in Georgia finish accident reports, they send them to BuyCrash.com. This is the only third-party website you should use to get a report, as it is affiliated with the Columbus Police Department and other policing agencies in Georgia. Any other third-party website might not have complete or accurate police reports, so victims should not use them.
You can also go to the Columbus Public Safety Building, which houses the local police department, to get your report. This service is available to the public between seven in the morning and seven in the evening. Before trying to obtain the report in person, call the Columbus Police Department to confirm it’s ready to be picked up.
Information You Need to Get Your Police Crash Report for an Accident in Columbus, GA
Victims must show they were involved in an accident to get the corresponding incident report from the Columbus Police Department. Our lawyers can help you prep the necessary information beforehand so that getting your report is simple and quick.
Suppose you plan to download your report online. In that case, you will first need to input the state and jurisdiction of the incident, which would be Georgia and the Columbus Police Department, respectively. From there, the website will prompt you to provide your last name and the date of the accident. On top of that information, you must also give the report number, your VIN, or your driver’s license number, which should be sufficient to download your report. Reports downloaded online cost $13.
On BuyCrash.com, victims can see when the last report from the Columbus Police Department was uploaded. This information can help you determine whether your incident report is ready for retrieval online.
If you go in person to get your report, you must give officers similar information, like your name and details about the accident.
Will You Have to Wait to Get Your Car Crash Report from the Columbus Police Department?
In all likelihood, your incident report won’t be ready immediately after the accident in Columbus. Instead, it will probably be several days before you can actually get your report.
When officers get to the crash site, they will talk to everyone involved and process the scene in its entirety. They will then condense that information into an accident report, which could take some time.
Police departments generally finish accident reports within several business days of crashes in Georgia. If it has been longer than a week or so from the accident and your report is not available online or in person, we can call the Columbus Police Department to inquire about the reasons for the delay.
If police officers need additional information from you to finish the report, we can help provide it to hasten the process. The longer you have to wait for officers to finish the report, the longer you could be without crucial information that might help your case. This is why prioritizing report retrieval is important for all motor vehicle accident victims in Columbus.
How to Read Your Columbus, GA Car Crash Report
Police departments throughout Georgia use the same general accident report forms to document crashes. Our Columbus, GA personal injury attorneys can help you read a police accident report after you get it and explain how we plan to use it to strengthen your recovery.
The first page of accident reports contains basic information about incidents, such as all involved drivers’ names, license numbers, insurance information, and contact information. Police officers will note if they performed any alcohol or drug tests on involved drivers and the road and weather conditions at the time of the crash.
On the second page of accident reports are areas for officers to write notes, so read this section carefully. Officers might draw diagrams of the incident to indicate what happened and will note all drivers and occupants and their injuries. We’ll also pay careful attention to this section to ensure officers accurately describe your injuries and their severity in the report.
Our attorneys can help you make sense of the report after you get it. Officers might use unfamiliar phrasing or abbreviations in reports that our lawyers can explain as we review the report alongside you. Regardless of its admissibility as evidence in court, accident reports can help our attorneys better understand an accident’s circumstances and sequences of events as we prepare your case in Columbus.
Call Our Lawyers to Talk About Your Accident in Columbus, GA
Call Rice, Murtha & Psoras’ Savannah, GA car accident attorneys for a confidential and free case evaluation at (410) 694-7291.