Florida crash reports are sold statewide through one official site — FLHSMV’s Florida Crash Portal — for $10 per report plus a $2 transaction fee, with download links that expire in 48 hours. For the first 60 days a report is confidential: only involved parties, their attorneys, and their insurers may have it, each signing a sworn statement against commercial solicitation — misuse is a felony. Reports appear up to 10 days after the crash; minor crashes police didn’t work require your own self-report to FLHSMV within 10 days.
Florida, verified
Key Facts (verified July 2026)
Last updated
- The one door
- Florida Crash Portal (services.flhsmv.gov/crashreportpurchasing): $10 per report (F.S. 321.23) + $2 per transaction, max 10 reports per purchase, 48-hour download link. Mail/in-person: same $10, no convenience fee, signed statement required.
- The 60-day wall
- F.S. 316.066: reports are confidential for 60 days after filing — excepted parties (involved people, counsel, insurers) sign a sworn no-solicitation statement for early access.
- The teeth
- Unlawful disclosure or use of confidential report data: third-degree felony, plus civil liability with $2,500 minimum liquidated damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees.
- Officer-report triggers
- Death or injury, hit-and-run, DUI, wrecker tow, or commercial vehicle → officer files the Florida Traffic Crash Report within 10 days.
- The self-report lane
- No officer report required? The driver files the Driver Self Report of Traffic Crash with FLHSMV within 10 days — email or mail. Florida kept the lane Texas abolished.
- The $500 phone call
- F.S. 316.065: injury, death, or $500+ apparent damage → notify police immediately by the quickest means (city PD; otherwise sheriff or nearest FHP).
- The privilege
- Statements made to the officer for the crash report are inadmissible at trial — Florida compels the report, so it shields what you say in it.
- The vendor history
- LexisNexis contract terminated June 2019; $9.8M AG settlement (2020) over kept $10 fees. Sales have been state-run ever since.
- 2024, officially
- FLHSMV Crash Facts: 381,423 crashes (~1,799/day), 3,098 deaths, 14,026 incapacitating injuries, MDR 1.24 — and 97,999 hit-and-run crashes (≈1 in 4), killing 242.
One portal, two prices — and a local door that's slower than the state's
Florida sits at the centralized end of the crash-report spectrum: whether FHP or a city department worked your crash, the report lands in FLHSMV’s statewide system and sells through the Florida Crash Portal. Online, the arithmetic is fixed by statute plus a service charge: $10 per report under F.S. 321.23, a $2 convenience fee per transaction (not per report), a ten-report cap per purchase, and an emailed download link that dies after 48 hours — the most common Florida retrieval mistake is buying the report and opening the email on day three.
The paper path costs the same $10 with no convenience fee: a request to FLHSMV by mail or in person with a signed statement. What Florida doesn’t reward is the local-first instinct that works in many states. Miami-Dade’s Central Records Bureau in Doral accepts mailed crash-report requests with a notarized sworn-statement form — and quotes up to 60 days of processing for a document the state portal delivers in days. The local door matters only for what the portal doesn’t sell: investigation materials, photographs, 911 audio, and body-camera footage, which travel by records request instead.
Timing is the other constant: officers have 10 days to file, and FLHSMV warns reports may take up to 10 days to become purchasable. Searching on day two and concluding your report “doesn’t exist” is premature by about a week — the same trap our free-report guide documents with New York’s non-refundable search fee.
The 60-day confidentiality wall: Florida's two clocks, mapped
What makes Florida genuinely different is not the portal — it’s the seal. F.S. 316.066 makes every crash report confidential for 60 days after filing, carves out the people who need it (parties, counsel, insurers, prosecutors), and makes each of them swear in writing that the information won’t feed commercial solicitation. The whole architecture exists to starve accident-chasing operations of fresh victim data — and it carries real penalties. Every clock in the system:
| Window | The rule | Who it touches |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 (crash) | F.S. 316.065: immediate notice to police for injury, death, or $500+ damage — quickest means | Driver's duty; noncriminal infraction if skipped |
| Days 1–10 | Officer files the Florida Traffic Crash Report (injury/death/hit-and-run/DUI/wrecker/CMV) — or the driver self-report is due to FLHSMV | Officer's duty — or yours, if no officer report was required |
| Days 1–60 (from filing) | Report is CONFIDENTIAL: released only with a sworn no-solicitation statement | Involved parties, their attorneys, insurers/agents, law enforcement, prosecutors — no one else |
| Misuse, any time | Unlawful disclosure or commercial use of confidential report data: third-degree felony + civil liability ($2,500 minimum liquidated damages, punitive, fees) | Anyone who breaches the wall |
| Day 61+ | Report becomes a public record; anyone may purchase from the Crash Portal | General public |
| Trial, any time | Accident-report privilege: statements made for the report are inadmissible as evidence | Protects every reporting driver |
Source: F.S. 316.066 and 316.065 (2025 statutes, flsenate.gov), verified July 2026.
Inside the 60-day window and not sure you qualify?
Officer report or self-report? Florida's split reporting duty
Florida decides who writes the report by severity. An officer must complete the Florida Traffic Crash Report — within 10 days — when the crash involves death or personal injury, a hit-and-run or DUI violation, a wrecker tow, or a commercial motor vehicle. That hit-and-run trigger does heavy lifting: FLHSMV counted 97,999 hit-and-run crashes in 2024, roughly one in four of all Florida crashes, every one of them owed an officer’s report.
Below the officer-report line, Florida — unlike Texas, which abolished its driver report in 2017 — still runs a self-report lane: the driver files the Driver Self Report of Traffic Crash with FLHSMV within 10 days, by email or mail. And underneath both sits the immediate-notice rule, F.S. 316.065: injury, death, or $500 or more in apparent damage means calling it in by the quickest means — city police inside a municipality, otherwise the sheriff or the nearest FHP station. Skipping the call is a noncriminal infraction; skipping the paperwork leaves your crash without a state record. Our report-terminology guide maps how Florida’s substitute-report design compares with the parallel-report states.
Why Florida fired its report vendor — and what it means for you
Florida used to sell crash reports the way Georgia and Indiana still do: through LexisNexis’s platform. The state terminated that contract in June 2019 and brought sales in-house; in 2020, the Florida Attorney General announced a $9.8 million settlement resolving allegations the vendor had kept FLHSMV’s $10-per-report fees as profit. The practical upshot for drivers: any site selling “official Florida crash reports” other than the state portal is now a middleman by definition — the vendor era is over here. The full vendor-economics story lives in our BuyCrash guide.
The privilege nobody explains: your report statements can't convict you — or win your case
Buried in the same statute as the 60-day wall is Florida’s accident-report privilege: statements you make to the officer for the purpose of the crash report are inadmissible at trial. The logic is constitutional — the state compels you to report your own crash, so it can’t also use that compelled account against you. Officers investigating a possible crime conduct a separate interview, after warnings, precisely because the report-side conversation is walled off.
For injured victims the privilege cuts both ways, and knowing that changes how you use the document. The report’s narrative and statements can’t simply be read into evidence — yours or the other driver’s. What the report still does, decisively, is frame the insurance negotiation: adjusters price liability from the officer’s coded conclusions and diagram long before any courtroom rules apply. Reading those codes correctly — and spotting where they’re wrong — is the skill our crash-report decoder teaches.
Injured on a Florida road?
Step-by-step: getting your Florida report
Determine which report your crash generates
Officer's report (filed within 10 days) if the crash involved injury, death, hit-and-run, DUI, a wrecker tow, or a commercial vehicle. Below that line, the duty is yours: the Driver Self Report of Traffic Crash, due to FLHSMV within 10 days.
If the crash was reportable, make sure it was reported at all
F.S. 316.065 requires immediate notice — quickest means — for any crash with injury, death, or $500+ apparent damage: city police inside a municipality, otherwise the county sheriff or nearest FHP station. If nobody called it in, do it now; the officer's report flows from that notice.
Wait out the filing window, then buy from the Crash Portal
Reports take up to 10 days to appear. Then: services.flhsmv.gov/crashreportpurchasing, $10 per report plus $2 per transaction, up to 10 reports per purchase. The download link emailed to you expires in 48 hours — download and save immediately.
During the first 60 days, request as an excepted party
You qualify if you're an involved party, counsel, or the insurer — and you'll swear the no-solicitation statement as part of the purchase. Strangers to the crash simply wait: the report becomes public at day 61.
Skip the local-agency door unless you need something extra
Florida's local doors are the slow ones — Miami-Dade's records bureau quotes up to 60 days by mail with a notarized sworn form. Go local only for what the portal can't sell: homicide-investigation materials, photos, 911 audio, or body-camera footage via a records request.
If you self-reported, keep your own record
The self-report form goes to SelfReportCrashes@flhsmv.gov or by mail to FLHSMV Crash Records, 2900 Apalachee Parkway, MS 28, Tallahassee, FL 32399. Keep a copy and your email receipt — with no officer report, your submission plus scene photos and exchanged details are the record.
Read the report before the insurer quotes you
Check the coded fault conclusions, the diagram, and every listed injury severity. Remember the privilege: your statements in the report can't be used at trial, but the insurer will still negotiate from the officer's conclusions — an attorney reads both layers free if you were injured.
Florida Accident Reports: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my Florida crash report?
Almost always from the state, not the local department: FLHSMV's Florida Crash Portal (services.flhsmv.gov/crashreportpurchasing) sells reports statewide for $10 each plus a $2 per-transaction convenience fee, up to 10 reports per purchase, delivered as a download link that expires in 48 hours. Reports typically take up to 10 days after the crash to appear. Mail and in-person requests to FLHSMV cost the same $10 with no convenience fee but need a signed statement.
Why can't I see a Florida crash report right after the crash?
Because Florida seals them. Under F.S. 316.066, crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing — during that window they're available only to the involved parties, their attorneys, their insurers and insurance agents, and a short list of others (law enforcement, prosecutors, certain agencies and media under conditions). Everyone with access signs a sworn statement promising not to use the information for commercial solicitation. After 60 days, the report becomes a public record.
What is the sworn no-solicitation statement?
The gatekeeping document of Florida's system: before receiving a report inside the 60-day window, a requester must file a written sworn statement that the information won't be used for any commercial solicitation. It has teeth — knowingly misusing confidential crash-report information is a third-degree felony, and the statute layers on civil liability with minimum liquidated damages of $2,500 plus punitive damages and attorney fees. This is Florida's anti-ambulance-chasing architecture.
When do Florida police have to write a crash report?
F.S. 316.066 requires an officer's Florida Traffic Crash Report, filed within 10 days, when a crash involves death or personal injury, a hit-and-run or DUI violation, a vehicle towed by wrecker, or a commercial motor vehicle. Below those triggers, officers may still write one — but if they don't, the reporting duty shifts to you: the driver self-report, due to FLHSMV within 10 days.
What if police didn't come to my minor Florida crash?
Florida kept the driver self-report lane other states abolished: when no officer report is required (no injuries, no wrecker), the driver submits the "Driver Self Report of Traffic Crash" form to FLHSMV within 10 days — by email to SelfReportCrashes@flhsmv.gov or by mail to Crash Records in Tallahassee. Separately, F.S. 316.065 requires immediately notifying police (city PD in a municipality; otherwise the sheriff or nearest FHP station) for any crash with injury, death, or $500+ in apparent damage.
Is it cheaper or faster to get my report from the local police department?
In Florida, usually neither — the state portal is the fast door. Miami-Dade's Central Records Bureau in Doral, for example, takes crash-report requests by mail with a notarized sworn-statement form and quotes processing of up to 60 days; the state portal serves the same report as a $12 download within days of filing. Florida inverts the usual local-first instinct: start with the state.
Can something I told the officer be used against me?
Not from the report itself. Florida's accident-report privilege (in F.S. 316.066) makes statements made to an officer for purposes of completing the crash report inadmissible in trial — the law compels you to report, so it shields what you say when you do. Practical consequences: the report's narrative isn't automatically evidence, and a claim is rarely decided by the report alone. Criminal investigations are run separately precisely because of this wall.
Why did Florida stop selling reports through LexisNexis?
Florida ran its crash-report sales through LexisNexis until the state terminated the contract in June 2019 and moved sales to its own Crash Portal. In 2020 the Florida Attorney General announced a $9.8 million settlement over the vendor keeping FLHSMV's $10-per-report fees. It's one of the clearest examples of the vendor-layer economics our BuyCrash guide documents — and why Florida's official channel is now state-run.
How dangerous are Florida roads, statistically?
FLHSMV's official 2024 Crash Facts: 381,423 codable crashes — about 1,799 per day — killing 3,098 people and causing 14,026 incapacitating injuries. The mileage death rate was 1.24 per 100 million vehicle miles. Two categories stand out: 678 pedestrian deaths, and an extraordinary hit-and-run problem — 97,999 hit-and-run crashes (roughly one in four Florida crashes), killing 242 people.
I was injured in a Florida crash. What should I do with the report?
Get it as soon as it's filed (you're an excepted party during the 60-day window), then read it against what happened — the officer's coded conclusions will frame the insurer's liability position even though the narrative itself is privileged from trial. An attorney retrieves the report free as your representative, signs the sworn statement as counsel, and reads the codes in the same pass. Florida's no-fault PIP deadlines make early review genuinely time-sensitive.
Sources
Every fee, statute, deadline, and statistic on this page was verified against the following official sources on July 27, 2026. Statutory text and FLHSMV’s pages control.
- FLHSMV — Traffic Crash Reports (fees, portal, confidentiality overview)
- FLHSMV — Florida Crash Portal (official purchase site)
- Florida Statutes § 316.066 — crash reports: officer criteria, driver self-report, 60-day confidentiality, penalties, privilege
- Florida Statutes § 316.065 — immediate notice of crashes ($500 threshold)
- Florida Statutes § 321.23 — the $10 crash-report fee
- FLHSMV — Driver Self Report of Traffic Crash (form and instructions)
- FLHSMV — Florida Traffic Crash Facts Annual Report 2024 (PDF; all statistics cited)
- Miami-Dade — Central Records Bureau (local crash-report door)
- Miami-Dade — Request Reports & Records (sworn statement, processing time)
- Florida Attorney General — LexisNexis settlement over kept FLHSMV fees ($9.8M; contract terminated June 2019)
This guide is informational and is not legal advice. FindAccidentReport.com is sponsored by personal-injury attorneys; see our editorial standards for how we research and fund our guides.