If the Pennsylvania State Police investigated your crash, a copy costs $22 and becomes available 15 days after the crash. If a municipal department investigated, state law caps the price at $15, or $25 in Philadelphia. Either way, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751 entitles you, your attorney, and your insurer to a certified copy of the full report. The same section also says that copy is not admissible as evidence, and lets police withhold it while criminal charges are pending.
Pennsylvania, verified
Key Facts (verified July 2026)
Last updated
- State Police price
- $22 per crash report, requested online or by mailing form SP 7-0015 with a money order or certified check to the Crash Reports Unit, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg.
- The statutory cap
- 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751(b)(2): the cost of furnishing a copy "shall not exceed $15." In a city of the first class, meaning Philadelphia, § 3751(b)(3) caps it at $25.
- What you are owed
- Police departments "shall, upon request, furnish a certified copy of the full report" to any person involved, their attorney, or their insurer. Certified and full are the statute's own words.
- The 15-day clock
- Every investigating department must forward an initial written report to PennDOT within 15 days, with a supplemental report later if needed. PSP tells requesters reports are available at day 15.
- Not evidence
- § 3751(b)(4): the copy "shall not be admissible as evidence in any action for damages or criminal proceedings" arising from the crash. Driver reports carry the same bar under § 3747(f).
- When police may refuse
- § 3751(b)(5) permits withholding the complete investigation copy while criminal charges are pending against anyone involved, unless criminal procedure rules require production.
- Your own duties
- § 3746: immediate notice by the quickest means for injury, death, or a vehicle too damaged to drive safely. § 3747: if no officer investigated, file form AA-600 with PennDOT within five days.
- The insurer lookup
- Driver reports are confidential, yet § 3747(e) requires PennDOT to disclose whether a vehicle was insured, the insurer's name, and the identity of someone who denies being at the crash.
- 2024, officially
- PennDOT Crash Facts: 110,765 reportable crashes, 1,127 deaths (second lowest since 1928), 66,931 injuries, 4,713 suspected serious injuries, and a fatality rate of 1.13 per 100 million vehicle-miles.
The price is set by statute, not by the records clerk
Most states let each agency price its own crash reports. Pennsylvania wrote the number into the Vehicle Code. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751(b)(2), the cost of furnishing a copy of a police crash report “shall not exceed $15.” Philadelphia, the Commonwealth’s only city of the first class, gets its own ceiling of $25 under the next paragraph. Those are maximums that bind the department, not suggestions.
Against that backdrop, the Pennsylvania State Police charge $22 for copies of the crashes they investigate, payable online or by money order with form SP 7-0015. So the honest summary for a Pennsylvania driver is this: the price you pay depends on who happened to respond. A turnpike or rural highway crash worked by a trooper costs $22. The same crash a mile away on a borough street, worked by that borough’s police, is capped at $15.
That gap is worth acting on. If a municipal department quotes you more than $15, or a Philadelphia office quotes more than $25, the statute is on your side and worth citing by section number. It is the rare piece of crash-report law that puts a hard number in a consumer’s hands, and it is almost never mentioned on the pages that tell Pennsylvanians how to get a report.
Every door in Pennsylvania, and the rule attached to it
Each row is verified against the agency’s own page or the statute itself, July 2026.
| Door | Covers | Cost and mechanics | The rule that binds it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania State Police | Crashes PSP investigated (most interstates and much of rural PA) | $22, online request site or form SP 7-0015 by mail with money order or certified check | Available 15 days after the crash; Crash Reports Unit, 1800 Elmerton Ave, Harrisburg, (717) 783-3380 |
| Municipal police department | Crashes on borough, township, and city streets outside Philadelphia | Capped by statute: "shall not exceed $15" per 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751(b)(2) | The department "shall" furnish a certified copy of the full report to involved parties, their attorney, or insurer |
| Philadelphia Department of Records | All Philadelphia crashes (not handled by the police department directly) | Capped at $25 as a city of the first class, § 3751(b)(3); no personal checks, credit or debit cards | Online application available; 2 to 3 weeks to process, versus 10 to 12 weeks for police incident reports |
| PennDOT (driver-filed reports) | Crashes no officer investigated, reported by the driver on form AA-600 | Free to file, due within five days under § 3747 | Confidential, but PennDOT must still disclose whether a vehicle was insured and name the insurer |
Not sure which door is yours, or what it should cost?
The report you cannot use in court, and why it still decides your claim
Here is the Pennsylvania rule that catches people flat. Section 3751(b)(4) provides that the copy of the report “shall not be admissible as evidence in any action for damages or criminal proceedings arising out of a motor vehicle accident.” Driver-filed reports are barred the same way by § 3747(f). The document you waited 15 days and paid $22 for cannot be handed to a jury.
That does not make it worthless. It makes it a roadmap rather than an exhibit. Insurance adjusters are not bound by courtroom evidence rules, and they price liability directly from the officer’s coded conclusions, diagram, and narrative, usually months before anyone files suit. The report also names the witnesses, the responding units, the citations issued, and the measurements taken, and those underlying sources are admissible even though the report summarising them is not.
The practical consequence for an injured Pennsylvanian is that errors in the report still cost real money at the negotiating table, so they are worth correcting early with the investigating department. Our crash-report decoder walks through the coded fields that adjusters read first.
Your own duties: immediate notice, the five-day AA-600, and the signed slip
Pennsylvania’s reporting trigger is not a dollar figure. Section 3746 requires the driver to give notice immediately, by the quickest means of communication, to the nearest police department when a crash injures or kills anyone, or damages a vehicle so badly that it cannot be driven under its own power without further damage or hazard and therefore requires towing. If the driver is physically incapable, another occupant who is capable must make the call.
The same section produces a small artifact worth keeping. Every crash reported to a police department must be investigated by an officer, who “shall provide each driver a signed statement that the accident was reported.” That slip is both your proof of compliance and, in practice, where the incident number you will quote back to the records unit comes from.
When a crash needed investigating and no officer investigated it, the paperwork becomes yours. Section 3747 requires the driver to forward a written report to PennDOT within five days, on form AA-600, sent to the Bureau of Operations Crash Unit, P.O. Box 2047, Harrisburg, PA 17105-2047. If the driver is incapacitated and does not own the vehicle, the owner takes on the five-day duty instead. Pennsylvania is therefore a substitute-report state, unlike the parallel-filing states mapped in our report-terminology guide.
The insurer lookup hidden inside a confidentiality clause
Section 3747(e) begins by locking driver-filed reports away: they are “for the confidential use of the department” and other government agencies for accident-prevention purposes. Then it carves out two exceptions that quietly hand a crash victim real leverage. PennDOT must disclose the identity of a person involved in a crash when that identity is not otherwise known, or when the person denies having been there at all. And PennDOT must disclose whether any person or vehicle was covered by a vehicle insurance policy, along with the name of the insurer.
Those two clauses answer the questions that stall the most Pennsylvania claims: who was that driver, and who insures them. If the other driver has gone quiet, changed their story, or handed over an insurance card that leads nowhere, the statute provides a route that does not depend on their cooperation.
Limited tort, full tort, and the election you may never have made
Pennsylvania asks every car owner to make a choice that most make without noticing, and it governs what an injury claim can ever be worth. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705, insurers must present a standardised notice offering two options. Limited tort keeps your right to recover medical bills and other out-of-pocket losses, but gives up compensation for pain and suffering unless the injury meets the policy’s definition of serious injury or another listed exception applies. Full tort keeps that right unrestricted, for a higher premium.
One line in the statute is worth reading twice. The notice tells the insured that if they do not sign and return it, they “will be considered to have chosen the full tort coverage” and will be charged the full tort premium. In other words, limited tort requires an affirmative signature. Anyone told flatly that they are limited tort should confirm what their own policy documents actually show before accepting a reduced offer.
Injured on a Pennsylvania road?
What PennDOT's 2024 numbers say
PennDOT’s 2024 Crash Facts and Statistics book counts 110,765 reportable crashes on Pennsylvania roads, a rise of 0.4% over 2023, against 1,127 deaths and 66,931 injuries. The death toll fell 6.8% year over year and was the second lowest since record keeping began in 1928. The fatality rate worked out to 1.13 per 100 million vehicle-miles travelled.
The crash-type table is the part worth knowing if you are about to read your own report. Angle collisions were the most common crash by volume at 32,969, but hit-fixed-object crashes killed the most people at 384, followed by angle crashes at 247 and crashes involving a non-motorist at 188. Rear-end crashes were frequent at 20,825 yet accounted for only 81 deaths. PennDOT also attributes driver behaviour, meaning distraction, impairment, or aggression, as the leading factor in 83% of crashes each year, and the agency is blunt about the vocabulary: its own release says “It’s crash, not accident.”
Step-by-step: getting your Pennsylvania report
Keep the signed statement the officer hands you
Under § 3746 the investigating officer must give each driver a signed statement that the crash was reported. It is your proof the duty was met and normally carries the incident number every later request needs.
Work out which agency investigated before you pay anyone
State Police handle most interstate and rural crashes, municipal departments handle their own streets, and Philadelphia routes crash reports through the city Department of Records. The price and the process are different at each door, so identify the agency first.
Wait out the statutory 15 days
Section 3751 gives the investigating department 15 days to forward its initial report, and PSP tells requesters that reports are available 15 days after the crash. Requesting in week one is the most common wasted attempt in Pennsylvania.
State Police crashes: pay $22 online or mail form SP 7-0015
Use the online crash report request site, or download SP 7-0015, sign it, and mail it with a money order or certified check for $22 payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the PA State Police Crash Reports Unit, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110. Questions go to (717) 783-3380.
Local-department crashes: ask for the certified full copy, and hold them to $15
Section 3751(b) entitles an involved person, their attorney, or their insurer to a certified copy of the full report, at a price that "shall not exceed $15" outside Philadelphia and $25 within it. Ask for the certified full report by name, and query any quote above the cap.
If no officer investigated, file form AA-600 within five days
When a crash required investigation under § 3746 and no officer investigated it, § 3747 puts the report on you: send PennDOT the AA-600 Driver's Accident Report within five days, to the Bureau of Operations Crash Unit, P.O. Box 2047, Harrisburg, PA 17105-2047.
Read the report for the claim, not for the courtroom
The copy is not admissible under § 3751(b)(4), but adjusters still negotiate from its coded conclusions and diagram. Check them against what happened, correct factual errors with the investigating department, and get an attorney read of the fault fields if you were injured.
Pennsylvania Accident Reports: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my accident report in Pennsylvania?
It depends on who investigated. If the Pennsylvania State Police worked your crash, request it from PSP for $22, either through the online crash report request site or by mailing form SP 7-0015 with a money order or certified check to the Crash Reports Unit in Harrisburg. If a municipal police department investigated, request it from that department directly, where state law caps the price at $15. Philadelphia crashes go through the city Department of Records rather than the police department.
How much should a Pennsylvania crash report cost?
Less than most people pay. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751, the cost of furnishing a copy "shall not exceed $15," and in a city of the first class (Philadelphia is the only one) it shall not exceed $25. The Pennsylvania State Police charge $22 for reports from their own investigations. The practical lesson: if a borough or township department investigated your crash, the statute caps what it can charge you at $15, so a higher quote is worth questioning.
When will my Pennsylvania crash report be ready?
Roughly two weeks, and that is written into the law rather than left to practice. Section 3751 gives every investigating police department 15 days from the crash to forward an initial written report to PennDOT, with a supplemental report later if the first one is incomplete. PSP states plainly that crash reports are available 15 days after the date of the crash. Philadelphia estimates 2 to 3 weeks to process a crash report request through its Department of Records.
Who is allowed to get a Pennsylvania crash report?
A short, statutory list, and if you are on it the department has no discretion. Section 3751(b)(1) says police departments "shall, upon request, furnish a certified copy of the full report" to any person involved in the accident, their attorney or insurer, and to federal, state, and local government bodies. PSP lists the same group. Note the two words most guides skip: certified and full. You are entitled to the complete report, certified, not a summary.
Can I use the crash report as evidence in my case?
No, and this surprises nearly everyone. Section 3751(b)(4) states that the copy "shall not be admissible as evidence in any action for damages or criminal proceedings arising out of a motor vehicle accident." Driver-filed reports carry the same bar under § 3747(f). The report still matters enormously, because insurance adjusters price liability from it long before any courtroom rule applies, and it points to the witnesses, measurements, and citations that are admissible.
The police will not give me the report. Can they refuse?
In one situation, yes. Section 3751(b)(5) lets a police department refuse to furnish the complete investigation copy whenever criminal charges are pending against anyone involved in the crash, unless the Rules of Criminal Procedure require production. That is why reports from DUI and fatal crashes often stall. The report is not lost, it is waiting on the criminal case, and your attorney can obtain it through discovery in the meantime.
Do I have to report my Pennsylvania crash myself?
Only when police do not. Section 3746 requires the driver to give immediate notice by the quickest means when a crash injures or kills someone, or damages a vehicle badly enough that it cannot be driven safely and must be towed. If no officer then investigates a crash that required investigation, § 3747 requires the driver to send a written report to PennDOT within five days, using form AA-600, addressed to the Bureau of Operations Crash Unit in Harrisburg.
What is the signed statement the officer gives me at the scene?
A Pennsylvania-specific receipt worth keeping. Section 3746 provides that every accident reported to a police department shall be investigated by an officer, who "shall provide each driver a signed statement that the accident was reported." That slip is your proof the reporting duty was satisfied, and it usually carries the incident number you will need to request the report later.
How do I find out the other driver's insurance company?
Pennsylvania gives you a statutory route that few drivers know about. Driver-filed reports under § 3747 are otherwise confidential, but the statute requires PennDOT to disclose whether any person or vehicle was covered by a vehicle insurance policy and the name of the insurer, and to disclose the identity of a person involved when that identity is not otherwise known or when someone denies being at the crash. That turns a stonewalling driver into a solvable problem.
What are limited tort and full tort, and why does my report matter for them?
They are the choice on your own policy that decides whether you can sue for pain and suffering. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705, limited tort policyholders may recover medical bills and other out-of-pocket losses but not pain and suffering, unless the injury meets the policy definition of serious injury or another exception applies. Full tort keeps that right unrestricted. One detail in the statute is worth knowing: if you never signed and returned the election notice, you are treated as having chosen full tort.
How dangerous are Pennsylvania roads, officially?
PennDOT's 2024 Crash Facts book counts 110,765 reportable crashes, 1,127 deaths, and 66,931 injuries, including 4,713 suspected serious injuries. Fatalities fell 6.8% from 2023 and were the second lowest since record keeping began in 1928. The most common crash type was angle collisions (32,969), while hit-fixed-object crashes killed the most people (384). PennDOT attributes driver behavior as the leading factor in 83% of crashes.
Sources
Every fee, statute, deadline, and statistic on this page was verified against the following official sources on July 28, 2026. Statutory text and PennDOT’s published data control.
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Request a Copy of a Vehicle Crash Report ($22 fee, SP 7-0015, 15-day availability, eligible requesters)
- Pennsylvania State Police: Get a Copy of a Crash Report
- PSP Form SP 7-0015: Application to Obtain Copy of Police Crash Report (PDF)
- 75 Pa.C.S. § 3751: Reports by police (15-day filing, certified copies, $15 and $25 fee caps, inadmissibility, criminal-charge withholding)
- 75 Pa.C.S. § 3746: Immediate notice of accident to police department (and the signed statement each driver receives)
- 75 Pa.C.S. § 3747: Written report of accident by driver or owner (five-day AA-600 duty, confidentiality, insurer disclosure)
- 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705: Election of tort options (limited tort and full tort notice language)
- PennDOT: Driver's Accident Report, Form AA-600 (PDF)
- PennDOT: 2024 Pennsylvania Crash Facts and Statistics (PDF; all statistics cited)
- PennDOT: 2024 Traffic Fatalities in Pennsylvania Second Lowest on Record (May 2025 news release)
- PennDOT: Crash Facts & Statistics (annual fact books and the Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool)
- City of Philadelphia: Get a copy of a public safety report (Department of Records process and timelines)
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.