How To Read Your Oklahoma Collision Report

Experienced personal injury attorneys serving Lawton, Oklahoma

If you’ve never done it before, getting a copy of and understanding your Oklahoma Collision Report can be a confusing process.

The document is largely written in numerical code and must be ordered by mail, phone, or fax from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS) Records Management.

A copy of your collision report costs $7-$10. If you want to pay by credit card you have to go down to a DPS office and purchase a report in person.

Typically, the investigating officer should file a crash report within 30 days of the accident. When there is a fatality, the report must be filed within 20 days of the death.

The Oklahoma Collision Report is about 4 pages long but can be longer depending on the complexity of your case. It is broken down into sections and the fields are numbered to make information easier to communicate.

Your Oklahoma crash report is a critical piece of evidence necessary to support your injury claim. Getting your collision report, however, is just one small step along the long road to getting compensation for your injuries. Getting anything but a lowball settlement offer out of the insurance companies almost always requires a fight. Hoover Rogers Law, LLP relishes the chance to take on the adjusters for you while you heal.

If you’ve been in a bad car accident, it’s important that you understand your crash report. Hoover Rogers Law has compiled information here about how to get and read your crash report, as well as translations for common code.

Reading Your Oklahoma Collision Report

Page 1

A short summary of the report is contained at the top right of the first page. Checkboxes indicate things like whether an investigation is completed, the report has been revised, or anyone was killed.

Many fields are numbered. Here’s what you’ll find, by section:

(1-4) This starts the report with the basics — date, time, location.

(5-8) These fields identify the drivers and owners of the vehicles involved. Here you can find out a person’s full name, age, address, driver’s license number, whether they were injured, as well as whether alcohol or drugs were detected, and insurance information.

Injuries

Under “Inj Sev.,” which stands for injury severity, the code provides information about the seriousness of bodily damage. The codes include:

• 1 - No injury
• 2 - Possible injury
• 3 - Non-incapacitating injury
• 4 - Incapacitating
• 5 - Fatal
• 9 - Unknown

This section is followed by the “Type of Injury” field. Information here is communicated in code, too. The code numbers and their meanings are:

• 1 - Head injury. Includes the neck and everything else above the shoulders
• 2 - Trunk, external. Open wounds, bruises, and abrasions
• 3 - Trunk, internal. Any injury to the body other than the head, arms, or legs that is not visible. Internal injuries to the trunk include crushed chest, painful breathing, and abnormal swelling
• 4-5 – Arms and legs
• 9 – Unknown

If the driver that hit you is suspected of being high or drunk at the time of the crash, available sobriety test results will be reported under “Drv./Ped. Cond.” These codes mean:

• 1 – Apparently normal
• 4 - Illegal drugs
• 6 – Very tired
• 8 – Sick
• 9 – Dizzy
• 10 – Emotional

A person’s BAC (blood alcohol content) is also reported here, if available. The legal limit is 0.08 BAC.

Vehicles Involved

(9-11) This section is all about the vehicles involved in the crash. The report will include the make, model, color, and year of the involved vehicles, what type of insurance is on the auto, and the extent of damage. The “Extent of Damage” field is limited to 1 – none; 2 – minor; 3 – functional; 4 - disabling; 9 – unknown.

(13) indicates whether anyone was cited for a traffic violation in the crash.

Page 1 ends with identifying information about the investigating officer who wrote the report.

Page 2

People involved

This page includes information about all the people involved in the accident, including, passengers and people outside of the vehicles. This is also where witnesses are noted.

(24-25) These fields have basic information like names and addresses.

(26) This section provides details about injuries sustained in the crash. It reveals injury severity, type, whether any safety equipment was used by the person, among other things. The same code used to identify driver injuries is used here as well.

If a crash involves a commercial motor vehicle (CMV), usually a large truck like a semi-trailer or 18-wheeler, information about the truck will be on this page, too.

Page 3

Crash Narrative

On this page, the responding officer begins to outline their version of events. The page opens with information about any pedestrians or cyclists involved in the crash.

Data on this page includes “Actions prior to collision.” Common entries include:

• 1 – Crossing at intersection
• 6 – Walking or riding in traffic
• 25 – Failure to yield right of way
• 26 – Not visible
• 28 – Failure to obey traffic signs, signals, or officers

Contributing Factors

Some of the most important information is coded in the “Unsafe/Unlawful Contributing Factors” section. These codes can help to establish liability for the collision. Here is a translation for the code:

• 1-12 – Failure to yield
• 13-15- Followed too closely (tailgating)
• 16-29 – Speeding
• 30-39 – Improper turn
• 40-46 – Changed lanes, unsafely stopped, or failed to stop in traffic
• 47-57 – Unsafe vehicle (defective or broken car parts like headlights and tires)
• 58-61 – Left of center encroachment
• 62-66 – Improper overtaking or passing
• 67-69 – Improper parking
• 70-73 – Driving distracted or inattention
• 74-77 – Driving in the wrong lane against the flow of traffic
• 78-81 – Improper start
• 82-88 – Suspected drug or alcohol impairment
• 89-99 – Miscellaneous, including
• 90 – Animal in roadway
• 92 – Avoiding other vehicles
• 95 – Road defect
• 97 – Improper bicycle action
• 99 – Improper pedestrian action

This information is followed by diagrams of vehicle damage.

Page 4

This page focuses on the physical crash. It includes a drawn description of the accident and highlights roadway and vehicle position as well as the collision events and police officer remarks.

The collision event section allows for up to four events attributed to each involved vehicle. The officer also identifies the most and first “harmful” events. Code for this section includes:

• 10 – Overturn, rollover
• 13 – Jackknife
• 30 – Pedestrian involved
• 44 – Hit fence
• 49-50 – Hit guardrail
• 59 – Hit tree

Additional pages

If there are more pages attached to the report, they are most likely additional officer remarks, supplemental information to the original report, or witness statements.

When you're down, we help you up

If you were injured in an accident, an attorney can help take the stress of the accident off you so you can focus on what really matters — healing.

Contact Hoover Rogers Law, LLP to schedule a free injury case review now and start taking charge of your accident today.