Accident - police report or not?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Guys, as we all know, a lot of people in an accident want to deal directly with each other keeping insurance out. Here are my questions:

1) If another driver has rear-ended my car and wants to deal directly with me, should I still get a police report in case he chooses to back out later?

2) I'm guessing police reports are also sent to the DMV. Do insurance companies scan these reports and would raise the premium of the at-fault driver even though he didn't directly report it and no claim was paid out? As I said, we choose to deal directly with cash

3) Would the police report also somehow land in the hands of carfax and thus potentially reduce the resale value of both cars in the future?


Thank you

I am not a licensed agent in NNY but my boss requires that I act like one at work.

sam007 said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Guys, as we all know, a lot of people in an accident want to deal directly with each other keeping insurance out. Here are my questions:

1) If another driver has rear-ended my car and wants to deal directly with me, should I still get a police report in case he chooses to back out later?

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I suggest you do. and if not handy cell phone pics, emailed to yourself.

And its good to have the police reports because the insurance company is listed on it, if you cant get them to reviel that to you without the police's help.

You should always get the company they have and the policy number even if the party does not want to report it.

2) I'm guessing police reports are also sent to the DMV. Do insurance companies scan these reports and would raise the premium of the at-fault driver even though he didn't directly report it and no claim was paid out? As I said, we choose to deal directly with cash

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I do not work in the DMV even thought I really want to. But I dont think small accidents are reported to the dmv. AND I dont think insurance company scan the police reports. Something like that happening has never come up,

If the insurance company doesnt pay the claim, they dont use the claim to your disadvantage. (they dont keep a record of it, or charge you for it..) thats why I say they dont get the accidents from police reports.

3) Would the police report also somehow land in the hands of carfax and thus potentially reduce the resale value of both cars in the future?

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Maybe Carfax, but again I doubt it.

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Banned_Princess said:

I do not work in the DMV even thought I really want to. But I dont think small accidents are reported to the dmv. AND I dont think insurance company scan the police reports. Something like that happening has never come up

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Of course they do. All police accident reports go to the DMV.

Banned_Princess said:

If the insurance company doesnt pay the claim, they dont use the claim to your disadvantage. (they dont keep a record of it, or charge you for it..)

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Insurance companies keep track of all accidents that are reported to them. They don't just throw away the records after dealing with the accident, regardless of fault or whether a claim is paid.

sam007 said:

1) If another driver has rear-ended my car and wants to deal directly with me, should I still get a police report in case he chooses to back out later?

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1) If another driver has rear-ended my car and wants to deal directly with me, should I still get a police report in case he chooses to back out later?
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If you get a police accident report you would have to report the accident to your insurance company, otherwise you risk being dropped. All insurance companies require that you report your accidents to them. Any accidents reported via a police accident report appear on your driving record, and can be accessed by insurance companies.

If you got rear ended why wouldn't you want to report it? This is one type of accident where it is clearly not your fault, and your deductible would be paid by the other's insurance.

You wouldn't be penalized by a rate increase or surcharge. I would report this and be done with it.

You do not have to file a police accident report, but you should report it to your insurer and be guided by their direction. Remember, you have three days to report an accident in New York State and your insurance company may have even stricter reporting criteria.

Everything Highwayman said is wrong.

Very few states keep track of accidents and those that do, don't get police reports sent directly to the DMV. The DMV mainly cares about accidents while uninsured.

If you file a police report but no one is cited for anything and no insurance claim is reported, insurance might not find out about it. Carfax might be able to find out if the damage was severe enough that the body shop would report it to their database, but if minor, probably not.

If you get rear ended, and the other person gives you their contact info and insurance info and you get their license plate number to be safe, a PR isn't really necessary. I wouldn't hang around waiting for them to pay me cash though, I'd just file the claim with their insurance and let them handle it. You have no reason NOT to - the accident is never going to go down as your fault so even when your insurance finds out about it (which they definitely could) it won't affect your policy.

Situations where you want a police report are those where there could be any question about fault - red light/green light or merging accidents, anything where it's not clear who had the right of way.