How to Get a Crash Report in Montana

Officers who investigate a crash must send a written report to the Montana Department of Justice when someone is killed or injured, or when property damage is more than $1,000.^1,2

The Montana Highway Patrol works under the control and supervision of the Montana Department of Justice.⁷

The Billings and Helena police departments and the City of Great Falls each release copies of their own police crash reports.^4,5,6

The Helena Police Department's Records Division is the central records office for the Helena Police Department, the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office and the East Helena Police Department. It treats those records as confidential.⁴

Online: The Billings Police Department says you and your insurance company can buy its crash reports through the service on its Order Police Reports page. The Helena Police Department says its crash reports are also available through CrashDocs.org.^4,5

By mail (Helena Police Department): Send your request to Helena Police Department, Attn: Records, 406 Fuller Ave, Helena, MT 59601. Include a copy of your driver's license, a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a $15.00 check made out to the Helena Police Department.⁴

Notarized request form (City of Great Falls): Use the city's request form, one form per incident. Your signature must be notarized. Pay the $15 fee by check or money order payable to the City of Great Falls. The city calls the officer's crash report the State Accident Form. Reports under 5 pages are mailed to you automatically, or emailed securely at no extra cost if you give an email address on the form.⁶

In person (Helena Police Department): You can pick up a Helena Police Department crash report at the Law Enforcement Center. Records clerks are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except City of Helena holidays. The records division will not fax crash reports.⁴

In person (older Billings reports): A Billings Police Department page says reports written before November 2018 are available at the Police Department, 316 N. 26th St., 4th Floor, Billings, MT 59101.^8,9

Helena Police Department, by mail: a copy of your driver's license, a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a $15.00 check made out to the Helena Police Department.⁴

Helena Police Department, for insurers and attorneys: an insurance company or attorney not listed as an involved party must include an authorization to release form or an assignment of rights signed by the involved party. The request must be on company letterhead.⁴

City of Great Falls: a separate request form for each incident, each with its own $15 fee. A form that lists several incidents is returned unprocessed.⁶

City of Great Falls: your notarized signature, stating that you are a named party or are legally authorized to request the report. Without notarization, the request is returned and your payment is not processed.⁶

Helena Police Department: $15.00 per crash report. For a mail request, pay by check made out to the Helena Police Department.⁴

Billings Police Department: its Order Police Reports page lists $30 per crash report, paid by debit or credit card. Another Billings Police Department page lists $20. Confirm the fee with Billings Police Records before you pay.^5,8

City of Great Falls: a $15 nonrefundable administrative search fee per request, paid by check or money order payable to the City of Great Falls.⁶

Great Falls keeps the $15 even if it denies your request. Examples include when you are not legally authorized, the report cannot be found, the report involves a felony or fatality, or it is outside the city's jurisdiction.⁶

Billings Police Department: allow 10 business days after the crash for the report to be available.⁵

City of Great Falls: expect 2 to 4 weeks for a report request to be completed.⁶

State law gives the investigating officer 10 days after finishing the investigation to send the written report to the Montana Department of Justice.^1,2

Montana crash reports filed under the state's accident-reporting law are confidential. They are not open to general public inspection, except as the law provides.³

Under state law, some people can see and copy a crash report filed by law enforcement without a court order. This includes witness statements. You qualify if you are named in the report or were involved in the crash.³

Your representative, if you named them in writing, and your insurance company can also see and copy the report. So can a party to a civil lawsuit arising from the crash.³

If the person named in or involved in the crash has died, the executor or administrator, or the attorney representing either one, can see and copy the report.³

Anyone, including businesses, may see and copy reports to research a vehicle's history. But the Montana Department of Justice may not release the name, address, phone number or other identifying details of anyone who reported the crash or of any victim.^1,3

The Helena Police Department releases its crash reports only to people listed on the report, such as drivers, vehicle owners, property owners and insurance companies.⁴

The City of Great Falls releases vehicle crash reports to people named in or involved in the report, such as drivers, vehicle owners and passengers. It also releases them to insurance carriers and the parties' legal representatives, who must include documentation with the request.⁶

The Montana Department of Justice may disclose who was involved in a crash if that is not otherwise known, or if the person denies being at the crash.³

Billings Police Department: 316 N. 26th St., 4th Floor, Billings, MT 59101. Mailing address: PO Box 1554, Billings, MT 59103. Open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The department directs report questions to its Police Records Department.^5,9

Helena Police Department: files crash reports for crashes inside the City of Helena. For crashes outside Helena city limits, or crashes another agency investigated, it tells you to contact the Montana Highway Patrol.⁴

City of Great Falls: for reports from outside city limits or written by another agency, the city refers you to the Cascade County Attorney's Office for sheriff's reports, or to the Montana Highway Patrol.⁶

City of Great Falls: the city typically does not process requests for reports involving felonies or fatalities. It refers those requests to the Cascade County Attorney's Office.⁶

A Montana city or town may pass an ordinance requiring drivers in a crash to also file a report with a city department. That can be a crash report or a copy of the report filed with the Montana Department of Justice. Those reports are for that city department's confidential use and are covered by the state's crash-report confidentiality law.¹⁰

Give notice right away. This rule covers crashes that cause injury or death, strike the body of a deceased person, or cause apparent property damage of $1,000 or more. If you were a driver and knew, or reasonably should have known, you were involved, Montana law requires you to notify law enforcement immediately by the quickest means.¹¹

Inside a city or town, notify the local police department. Elsewhere, notify the county sheriff's office or the nearest highway patrol office.¹¹

File a written report if no officer reported the crash. If you were a driver, Montana law requires you to report the crash in writing within 10 days when someone was killed or injured, or property damage was more than $1,000. You do not need to file this report if a law enforcement officer investigated and reported the crash.²

Your written report goes to the Montana Department of Justice. It must be made on the form the department approves.^1,2,12

The Montana Highway Patrol's form for a driver's own report is the Montana Highway Patrol Vehicle Crash Report, form HQ 1598. The form says that if no officer or agency produces a written report and damage is more than $1,000, you must report the crash in writing within 10 days. It gives the address as Montana Highway Patrol, PO Box 117, Boulder, MT 59632.¹³

In Billings, the city says you may report a non-injury crash that law enforcement did not investigate using the form linked on its Non-Investigated Crash Reporting page.¹⁴

If the driver is physically unable to make the written report and is not the vehicle's owner, state law requires the owner to make the report within 10 days after learning of the crash.¹⁵

A driver's required written crash report, or a supplemental report the Montana Department of Justice requires, cannot be used as evidence in any civil or criminal trial arising from the crash.^1,2

If you fail to report a crash as required, the Montana Department of Justice may suspend your driving privilege until you file the report. Breaking Montana's crash-reporting rules is also a misdemeanor. A first conviction carries a fine of $200 to $300 or up to 20 days in jail.^1,12,16