Corbin Sutter Accident Lawyers Personal Injury

a Florida crash report appears to say you caused an accident, that does not automatically mean you are legally responsible for the crash or that you cannot pursue an injury claim. The report can influence an insurance company’s fault investigation, but deciding civil responsibility may require evidence beyond what appears in the report.

One important reason is that the investigating officer often arrives after the collision rather than witnessing the impact firsthand. The report may be based on vehicle positions, damage, roadway evidence, statements from the drivers and witnesses, and other information available at the scene. Photographs, surveillance video, dashcam footage, independent witnesses, vehicle damage, electronic data and other evidence may later provide additional information about what actually happened.

Key Takeaways

• A Florida crash report can matter without automatically deciding civil fault. Insurers may consider it when evaluating a claim, but liability can depend on additional evidence.
• The investigating officer does not have to personally witness the collision to prepare the report. The officer may reconstruct what happened from statements, vehicle damage, roadway evidence and other information gathered afterward.
• A crash report may not contain every relevant fact. Witnesses can be missed, diagrams may not capture every detail, and evidence that was unavailable at the scene may surface later.
• Other evidence can provide a different or more complete picture of the crash. Photos, video, vehicle damage, independent witnesses and electronic information can sometimes clarify disputed facts.
• An unfavorable notation or diagram should be investigated rather than automatically treated as the end of an injury claim.
• Florida law limits how certain crash reports and crash-report statements can be used at trial. The rules contain important exceptions and distinctions.

How a Florida Crash Report Affects Fault After an Accident

A Florida crash report can be an important part of a fault investigation, but it does not automatically decide who is legally responsible for the collision.

Several different investigations or decisions can take place after the same crash.

A law-enforcement officer investigates the scene and documents information required for the crash report. An insurance company may conduct its own investigation before accepting or disputing liability. Attorneys may gather additional evidence and evaluate facts that were not available when the report was prepared. If liability remains disputed and a lawsuit eventually reaches trial, a judge or jury may ultimately decide civil responsibility based on the admissible evidence presented in the case.

Those are not necessarily the same process.

For example, an insurance adjuster may point to a diagram or contributing circumstance in the crash report when arguing that one driver caused the collision. That does not prevent additional photographs, video, witnesses or other evidence from becoming important to the liability investigation.

The crash report matters, but it is not necessarily the final word on fault.

Why an Officer Can Complete a Crash Report Without Seeing the Accident

An officer can investigate and document a collision without personally seeing the moment of impact.

In many crashes, law enforcement arrives after the vehicles have already stopped. Depending on the circumstances, the investigating officer may consider information such as:

• where the vehicles came to rest;
• damage to each vehicle;
• debris or marks on the roadway;
• statements from the drivers;
• passenger accounts;
• independent witnesses;
• photographs or other available evidence; and
• traffic violations or conditions observed during the investigation.

That information can be valuable. But reconstructing an event afterward is different from personally witnessing it.

Consider a collision at a busy US 41 or Tamiami Trail intersection in Southwest Florida. Traffic may need to begin moving again quickly, and damaged vehicles may be moved from their original positions before the investigation is complete. A nearby business may also have surveillance footage that the officer did not have an opportunity to obtain at the scene.

None of that means the investigating officer did anything wrong. It means only that the crash report reflects the information available during that investigation.

Additional evidence may later fill in part of the picture.

How to Identify Missing or Incorrect Information in a Florida Crash Report

A crash report can contain an error, an omission or an incomplete account of what occurred. That does not mean unfavorable reports are routinely wrong. It means the report should be considered alongside the rest of the available evidence when an important fact is disputed.

A driver might notice, for example, that the report shows the wrong direction of travel or places a vehicle in a different lane. A witness who left before speaking with the investigating officer may not appear in the report. A diagram might not show a detail that later becomes important. A disagreement about who had the green light may also remain unresolved at the scene.

Sometimes the concern is more subtle. The report may accurately document what one driver told the officer but not establish that the driver’s account was correct.

That distinction matters.

A crash report is a record of an investigation conducted with the information available at the time. When liability is disputed, the question is not simply whether the report favors one driver. The question is how the report fits with the complete body of available evidence.

How Other Evidence Can Show What Really Happened

Evidence outside the crash report can sometimes clarify, supplement or contradict information recorded during the initial investigation.

The importance of a particular piece of evidence depends on the dispute.

If two drivers disagree about who entered an intersection first, nearby surveillance or an independent witness could be especially important. If the dispute concerns where the vehicles were positioned, photographs and damage patterns may help.

“The crash report is one piece of the investigation. When fault is disputed, we also want to know what the photographs show, what the vehicle damage tells us, whether there were independent witnesses, and whether video or other evidence exists that may not have been available to the officer at the scene.”

— Corbin S. Sutter, Personal Injury Attorney, All Injuries Law Firm

Evidence can also disappear. Businesses may not preserve surveillance footage indefinitely, witnesses can become harder to locate, and badly damaged vehicles may eventually be repaired, transferred or destroyed.

For a deeper discussion of preserving and developing evidence when two versions of a Southwest Florida collision conflict, see How You Can Prove Fault After a Port Charlotte Car Accident When the Other Driver Changes Their Story.

How to Respond When an Insurance Company Uses the Crash Report to Blame You

An insurance company may rely on information in the crash report when initially deciding who it believes caused the collision. But the insurer can also evaluate evidence beyond the report.

That distinction can become important when an adjuster says something like, “The report puts you at fault.”

That may tell you how the insurer is currently evaluating the claim. It does not necessarily tell you whether all relevant evidence has been reviewed.

“When an insurance company points to the crash report, that tells you something about how it is evaluating fault at that point in the claim. It does not necessarily mean every photograph, witness, recording or other piece of evidence has been considered.”

— Bryan Greenberg, Attorney, All Injuries Law Firm

Bryan Greenberg previously represented insurers and employers at a large insurance-defense firm before joining All Injuries Law Firm. That experience provides additional perspective when evaluating how insurers may approach disputed claims.

An insurance investigation may also consider:

• statements from the drivers;
• independent witness accounts;
• photographs;
• surveillance or dashcam footage;
• vehicle damage;
• roadway evidence; and
• other investigative material.

An insurer therefore can give weight to a crash report without being legally required to treat it as the complete and final account of the collision.

This is one reason disputed-liability cases may require a closer review of exactly why the insurer believes one driver was responsible and what evidence supports—or undermines—that position.

You May Still Have a Claim Even If the Crash Report Says You Were Partly Responsible

A crash report suggesting that you contributed to an accident does not by itself establish the final percentage of civil responsibility.

More than one person’s actions can sometimes contribute to the same crash. Florida Statute §768.81 generally reduces recoverable damages in proportion to the claimant’s percentage of fault in negligence actions to which the statute applies. Under the current law, a party found greater than 50% at fault for his or her own harm generally may not recover damages in an applicable negligence action.

But a notation in the crash report is not itself the civil percentage-of-fault determination.

Suppose a report indicates that one driver failed to yield while making a turn. The complete investigation might also raise questions about the approaching driver’s speed, traffic signal, visibility, lane position or other conduct. Those facts would have to be evaluated rather than assuming the notation in the report conclusively settles every liability issue.

This article is not intended to provide a complete explanation of Florida comparative-fault law. The important point for someone reading an unfavorable crash report is narrower:

What appears in the report and the percentage of civil responsibility ultimately assigned to the people involved are not automatically the same thing.

How to Address Incorrect or Missing Information in a Florida Crash Report

If an important fact appears incorrect or incomplete, start by identifying exactly what is wrong and preserving the evidence that supports the correct information.

There is a difference between an objectively incorrect detail—such as the wrong direction of travel, vehicle or lane—and a disagreement with how an officer interpreted the available evidence.

A missing witness or newly available evidence may create a different issue than simply disagreeing with an apparent fault assessment.

Sometimes factual information may be corrected or additional information may be documented, but disagreement with an officer’s conclusion does not automatically mean the report will be changed.

If an important detail concerns you, identify it precisely and preserve photographs, video, witness information or other material that supports the facts you believe are missing or inaccurate.

Most importantly, do not assume that changing every unfavorable notation in the report is the only way to challenge an insurer’s view of the accident. The underlying evidence can matter independently.

How Florida Law Limits the Use of Crash Reports in Court

Florida law places specific restrictions on the use of certain crash reports and crash-report statements at trial, but the rule is more precise than simply saying, “Police reports are inadmissible.”

Florida Statute §316.066 provides that, except as specifically provided in the statute, a crash report made by a person involved in the crash and statements that person makes to law enforcement for purposes of completing a required crash report are made without prejudice to that person and may not be used as evidence in a civil or criminal trial. The statute also contains exceptions, including provisions involving certain testimony in criminal cases and specified breath, urine and blood test results.

That statutory language is narrower than a blanket rule that every part of every law-enforcement crash investigation is automatically excluded from evidence.

A crash investigation can produce different kinds of information. Statements made for purposes of completing a required crash report are not necessarily treated the same as every photograph, physical observation, test result, recording or independently obtained piece of evidence connected with the collision.

The more accurate takeaway is:

Florida law restricts the trial use of certain crash reports and crash-report statements, but the evidentiary rules are more specific than saying nothing connected with a police investigation can ever be used.

What to Do When a Florida Crash Report Appears to Blame You

Start by identifying exactly what in the report concerns you. Do not assume that an official-looking document has already decided the legal outcome of your injury claim.

1. Keep a complete copy of the crash report. You will want to know exactly what information an insurance adjuster may be reviewing.
2. Identify the specific problem. Is it the diagram? A contributing circumstance? A driver’s statement? The lane shown? A missing witness? A citation? Be precise.
3. Preserve photographs and video. Save your original crash-scene photos, dashcam footage and other recordings rather than relying only on copies posted online.
4. Keep witness information. Names, telephone numbers and other contact information can become increasingly important as time passes.
5. Identify outside video quickly. A gas station, store, home or other property near a Southwest Florida crash scene may have captured part of the collision without anyone realizing it at the scene.
6. Protect important physical or electronic evidence. In a serious crash, the damaged vehicles or electronic information associated with them may become relevant to determining how the collision occurred.
7. Do not assume the report has ended the claim. An unfavorable crash report can create a genuine liability problem, but it is still a problem to investigate rather than an automatic determination that no claim exists.

This can be especially important when the injuries are significant and responsibility for the collision is being disputed. Evidence that exists shortly after a crash may not still be available months later.

An Unfavorable Crash Report Is a Reason to Investigate, Not Automatically Give Up

Seeing a crash report that appears to blame you can be discouraging, particularly when an insurance adjuster begins treating the report as proof that the accident was your fault.

But the right question is not simply, “What does the crash report say?”

It is:

“What does all of the available evidence show about how this collision happened?”

The report may be part of that answer. So may photographs, witnesses, surveillance footage, vehicle damage, electronic information and other evidence that was not reflected in the original report.

All Injuries Law Firm has represented injured people in Southwest Florida for more than 35 years. In a disputed-liability case, evaluating the claim may require looking beyond the crash report to photographs, witness information, vehicle damage, available recordings and other evidence that may help show how the collision occurred.

For someone facing an unfavorable crash report in Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers or elsewhere in Southwest Florida, the immediate goal may simply be getting an accurate understanding of what happened and making sure an incomplete picture is not treated as the whole story.

If the crash has also created questions about medical expenses, lost income, vehicle damage or other insurance issues, our series guide explains who may pay medical bills, lost wages and other costs after a serious Southwest Florida car accident.

If you were injured in a collision and responsibility for the crash is being disputed, learn more about how our Southwest Florida car accident attorneys help injured people evaluate accident claims.

The crash report matters. But when the facts are disputed, it may be the beginning of the investigation rather than the final word.

This article provides general information about Florida car-accident claims and is not legal advice. The facts and available evidence can materially change the analysis in an individual case.