--- slug: california-police-accident-report title: "Report an injury accident to the police in California" kind: notification status: published hash: a83d2ab4d420babe19c0f6d56e98c071661f64fb875ea26ab63c3fb11eb218e5 created: 2026-10-05T02:15:17.891Z updated: 2026-10-05T02:15:17.891Z summary: "A driver in an accident that injured or killed anyone makes a written report within 24 hours to the California Highway Patrol or, inside a city, to the CHP or the city police." tags: ["accident","california","police"] above: ["[[motor-vehicle-accident]]"] below: [] adjacent: [] nested: [] --- # Report an injury accident to the police in California *A driver in an accident that injured or killed anyone makes a written report within 24 hours to the California Highway Patrol or, inside a city, to the CHP or the city police.* A driver in an accident that injured or killed anyone makes a written report within 24 hours to the California Highway Patrol or, inside a city, to the CHP or the city police. ## At a glance | Detail | Value | | --- | --- | | Kind | Notification | | Authority | [California Highway Patrol, or the city police department](https://www.chp.ca.gov/) | | Where it applies | us, us-ca | | Last verified against its sources | 2026-10-04 | | Version | 1 | ## Rules **Requirement:** Required when the accident injured or killed any person. *(checked as: (whether anyone was injured = true or whether anyone died = true))* [[widget:cvc-20008-a]] **Not eligible if:** A common carrier vehicle reports differently: its owner or driver reports to the CHP on or before the 10th day of the month following the accident. *(checked as: whether the vehicle is a common carrier vehicle = true)* [[widget:cvc-20008-b]] ## Deadlines **Written report:** Within 24 hours after the accident. ## How it is filed **What an agent may do:** authorized representative. The driver makes the written report, or causes it to be made. ## What this page does not know - How the written report is delivered (at an office, on a form, online) is not stated in the section read. ## Facts ```json { "procedure": { "schema": "procedure/1", "procedure_id": "california-police-accident-report", "type": "notification", "status": "published", "title": "Report an injury accident to the police in California", "summary": "A driver in an accident that injured or killed anyone makes a written report within 24 hours to the California Highway Patrol or, inside a city, to the CHP or the city police.", "vertical_id": "vertical-property-casualty-insurance-claims", "jurisdiction_ids": [ "us", "us-ca" ], "authority_ids": [ "us-ca-chp" ], "authorities": [ { "id": "us-ca-chp", "name": "California Highway Patrol, or the city police department", "kind": "law enforcement", "url": "https://www.chp.ca.gov/", "domain": "chp.ca.gov" } ], "parent_ids": [ "motor-vehicle-accident" ], "triggered_by_ids": [ "motor-vehicle-accident" ], "related_ids": [ "california-dmv-sr-1-accident-report" ], "last_verified_at": "2026-10-04T21:05:38.186Z", "eligibility_rules": [ { "id": "r-injury", "text": "Required when the accident injured or killed any person.", "test": { "any": [ { "fact": "loss.injury", "op": "eq", "value": true }, { "fact": "loss.fatality", "op": "eq", "value": true } ] }, "evidence_ids": [ "cvc-20008-a" ] } ], "disqualifiers": [ { "id": "d-common-carrier", "text": "A common carrier vehicle reports differently: its owner or driver reports to the CHP on or before the 10th day of the month following the accident.", "test": { "fact": "vehicle.is_common_carrier", "op": "eq", "value": true }, "evidence_ids": [ "cvc-20008-b" ] } ], "deadlines": [ { "id": "deadline-24h", "label": "Written report", "rule": "Within 24 hours after the accident.", "days": 1, "anchor": "the accident", "evidence_ids": [ "cvc-20008-a" ] } ], "authorization_policy": { "mode": "authorized_representative", "ai_may": [], "requirement": "The driver makes the written report, or causes it to be made.", "evidence_ids": [ "cvc-20008-a" ] }, "evidence": [ { "evidence_id": "cvc-20008-a", "source_type": "statute_regulation", "source_name": "California Legislative Information", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=20008", "title": "California Vehicle Code section 20008", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-04T21:05:38.185Z", "quotation": "20008. (a) The driver of a vehicle, other than a common carrier vehicle, involved in any accident resulting in injuries to or death of any person shall within 24 hours after the accident make or cause to be made a written report of the accident to the Department of the California Highway Patrol or, if the accident occurred within a city, to either the Department of the California Highway Patrol or the police department of the city in which the accident occurred.", "locator": { "char_start": 976, "char_end": 1442 }, "normalized_payload_hash": "sha256:8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894", "quote_hash": "sha256:ee632d7fd774d8308eda260a78b6172fa00a493e500deacc55fb8f075cf51259", "snapshot_artifact": "state/evidence/sha256/89/8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894.txt", "snapshot_hash": "sha256:8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894", "quote_status": "verified", "link_status": "ok", "authority_rank": "primary", "captured_by": { "tool": "SOURCE_CAPTURE", "run": "the build’s own code (src/procedures.js captureEvidence), on the build’s Mac, reading the page with curl", "at": "2026-10-04T21:05:38.185Z" } }, { "evidence_id": "cvc-20008-b", "source_type": "statute_regulation", "source_name": "California Legislative Information", "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=20008", "title": "California Vehicle Code section 20008", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-04T21:05:38.186Z", "quotation": "(b) The owner or driver of a common carrier vehicle involved in any such accident shall make a like report to the Department of California Highway Patrol on or before the 10th day of the month following the accident.", "locator": { "char_start": 1967, "char_end": 2183 }, "normalized_payload_hash": "sha256:8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894", "quote_hash": "sha256:b5a31690e39bc6a1b0e7e7795773cc171d6b733cf6b1702ee08255d40b8f13e9", "snapshot_artifact": "state/evidence/sha256/89/8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894.txt", "snapshot_hash": "sha256:8986974d02f8ce16cc333fb09fe52e197c6bf5a46c3b2cfbc952e59a58e07894", "quote_status": "verified", "link_status": "ok", "authority_rank": "primary", "captured_by": { "tool": "SOURCE_CAPTURE", "run": "the build’s own code (src/procedures.js captureEvidence), on the build’s Mac, reading the page with curl", "at": "2026-10-04T21:05:38.186Z" } } ], "unknowns": [ "How the written report is delivered (at an office, on a form, online) is not stated in the section read." ], "article_projection": { "description": "California Vehicle Code 20008: the written report a driver owes the police within 24 hours of an accident that injured or killed anyone.", "tags": [ "accident", "california", "police" ] }, "provenance": { "created_by": "Claude Code session for the Universal Procedure Graph", "method": "official pages, the form and the codes, read on the date shown; quotations found word for word" }, "version": 1 } } ``` --- **above:** [[motor-vehicle-accident]]