ENROLLED
ACT No. 317
2021 Regular Session
HOUSE BILL NO. 381
BY REPRESENTATIVE MOORE
1 AN ACT
2 To amend and reenact R.S. 32:398, relative to motor vehicle accident reports; to modify
3 references to accident reports and reporting requirements; to provide relative to
4 electronic forms for crash reports; to provide relative to ownership of data and crash
5 reports; to remove a provision that authorizes the Orleans Parish police department
6 to charge a fee for copies of accident reports; and to provide for related matters.
7 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
8 Section 1. R.S. 32:398 is hereby amended and reenacted to read as follows:
9 ยง398. Accident Crash reports; when and to whom made; information aid; fees for
10 copies; fees for accident crash photographs and videos
11 A. The driver of a vehicle involved in an accident a crash resulting in injury
12 to or death of any person or property damage in excess of five hundred dollars shall:
13 (1) Immediately, by the quickest means of communication, give notice of the
14 accident crash to the local police department if the accident crash occurs within an
15 incorporated city or town or, if the accident crash occurs outside of an incorporated
16 city or town, to the nearest sheriff's office or state police station.
17 (2) Give his name, address, and the registration number of the vehicle he was
18 driving and, upon request and if available, exhibit his license or permit to drive to
19 any person injured in such accident the crash or to the driver or occupant of or person
20 attending any vehicle or other property damaged in the accident crash.
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1 (3) Give such information and, upon request, exhibit such license or permit
2 to any police officer at the scene of the accident crash or who is investigating the
3 accident crash.
4 (4) If the accident crash occurs in a geographical area under order of
5 evacuation by a competent authority or is under a declared state of emergency, the
6 driver shall comply with the provisions of Paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Subsection
7 within seventy-two hours after the occurrence of the accident crash.
8 B. The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to or
9 death of any person or total property damage to an apparent extent of one hundred
10 dollars or more shall, within twenty-four hours after the accident, forward a written
11 report of the accident to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Any
12 person who violates the provisions of this Subsection may be imprisoned for not
13 more than sixty days or fined not more than one hundred dollars, or both.
14 C. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections may require the driver
15 of a vehicle involved in an accident, which is required to be reported by this Section,
16 to provide a supplemental report when the original report is insufficient in the
17 opinion of the department and may require witnesses of an accident to render reports.
18 D. B. It shall be the duty of the state police or the sheriff's office to
19 investigate all accidents crashes required to be reported by this Section when the
20 accident crash occurs outside the corporate limits of a city or town, and it shall be the
21 duty of the police department of each city or town to investigate all accidents crashes
22 required to be reported by this Section when the accidents crashes occur within the
23 corporate limits of the city or town. Every law enforcement officer who investigates
24 an accident a crash, as required by this Subsection, shall instruct the driver of each
25 vehicle involved in the accident crash to report the following to all parties suffering
26 injury or property damage as an apparent result of the accident crash:
27 (1) The name and address of the owner and the driver of the vehicle.
28 (2) The license number of the vehicle.
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1 (3) The name of the liability carrier for the vehicle, the name, address, and
2 telephone number of the insurance agent who procured the liability policy providing
3 coverage for the vehicle.
4 E.(1) Every law enforcement officer who investigates an accident shall initial
5 the accident report form to show that the officer has complied with the provisions of
6 Subsection D of this Section, and shall indicate on the accident report form whether
7 the investigation is made at the scene of the accident or by subsequent investigation
8 and interviews.
9 (2) C. Within forty-eight hours after completing the investigation, the
10 investigating law enforcement officer agency shall forward a written copy of the
11 crash report of the accident to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections or
12 data contained in the report to the Department of Transportation and Development.
13 However, if the accident crash occurred within the corporate limits of a city or town,
14 the enforcement office investigating law enforcement agency shall forward a written
15 copy of the crash report of the accident to the police department of the city or town
16 and a duplicate report to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections
17 Transportation and Development within forty-eight hours after completing the
18 investigation.
19 F. D.(1) The state police, any local police department, or any sheriff's office
20 shall provide copies of crash reports to any interested person upon request and may
21 charge a fee, not to exceed the sum of five dollars per report that does not exceed two
22 pages, and not to exceed twenty dollars, inclusive of all service fees and other
23 charges, per report that exceeds two pages.
24 (2) If the state police establishes a lesser charge for electronic copies of crash
25 reports, then a local police department or sheriff's office shall charge the amount
26 established by state police for any electronic copies of crash reports provided
27 pursuant to this Subsection.
28 (3) All data and reports shall be owned by the law enforcement agency who
29 created the report, and all collective data shall be owned by the state of Louisiana.
30 Third party vendors under contract with a state or local agency shall not be
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1 prohibited from selling individual crash reports on behalf of the agency. However,
2 third party vendors, including contracted agents of law enforcement entities, shall not
3 sell any aggregated or compiled data owned either by the state of Louisiana or a local
4 law enforcement entity, unless specifically authorized by the state of Louisiana.
5 G. E. The state police, any local police department, or any sheriff's office
6 shall provide copies of photographs of accidents crashes or other photographs
7 required of the investigating agency, video tapes recordings, audio tapes recordings,
8 and any extraordinary-sized documents, or documents stored on electronic media,
9 to any interested person upon request and may charge a reasonable fee for such
10 copies.
11 H. F. Every person holding the office of coroner in this state, or, in the event
12 of a vacancy in the office, the person performing the duties of coroner, shall report
13 to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections Transportation and Development
14 and to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission the death of any person as a result
15 of a collision crash involving a motor vehicle, and the circumstances of the collision
16 crash within sixty days following such the death. Such reports shall be made on
17 forms supplied or approved by the department as provided for in Subsection I of this
18 Section.
19 I. G. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall prepare and,
20 upon request, shall supply to police, coroners, sheriffs, and other suitable agencies
21 or individuals, forms for accident reports, calling for sufficient detailed information
22 to disclose, with reference to a highway accident, the cause, conditions then existing,
23 and the persons and vehicles involved. All accident reports required by this Section
24 shall be made on forms supplied or approved by the Department of Public Safety and
25 Corrections. Each accident report form supplied or approved by the department shall
26 contain directions to the investigating officer to instruct the parties to the accidents
27 to exchange information as required in Subsection D of this Section and shall contain
28 a place for the investigating officer to initial the report to indicate that he has given
29 those instructions the office of state police, a municipal police department, the
30 sheriff's office, and any other authorized agency or individual, with electronic forms
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1 of crash reports that provide sufficient detailed information to disclose, with
2 reference to a highway crash, the cause, conditions then existing, and the persons and
3 vehicles involved. All crash reports required pursuant to this Section shall be
4 provided on electronic forms approved by the Department of Public Safety and
5 Corrections. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall establish the
6 format required for crash reports.
7 J. H.(1) The Department of Public Safety and Corrections Transportation and
8 Development shall receive accident crash data derived from the crash reports
9 required to be made by this Section and may tabulate and analyze such reports the
10 data and publish annually, or at more frequent intervals, statistical information based
11 thereon as to the number, cause, and location of highway accidents crashes.
12 (2) Based upon its findings after analysis, the department Department of
13 Transportation and Development may conduct further necessary detailed research
14 to determine more fully the cause and control of highway accidents crashes. It may
15 further conduct experimental field tests within areas in the state from time to time
16 occasionally to prove the practicality of various ideas advanced in traffic control and
17 accident crash prevention.
18 K.(1)(a) I.(1) The reports required by this Section, and the information
19 contained in the reports, shall be confidential, shall be exempt from the provisions
20 of R.S. 44:1 et seq., and shall be made available only: to the parties to the accident
21 crash, parents or guardians of a minor who is a party to the accident crash, and
22 insurers, or an insurance support organization under contract to provide claims and
23 underwriting, of any party which is the subject of the report; to the succession
24 representatives of those parties, or to the attorneys of the parties or succession
25 representatives; or to a news-gathering organization that requests documents related
26 to the accident a specific crash. Upon request, accident crash reports shall be made
27 available to the above-enumerated persons within seven working days following the
28 completion of the accident crash investigation. For the purposes of this Subsection:
29 "news-gathering organization" means any of the following:
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1 (a) For the purposes of this Subsection, "insurance support organization"
2 means any of the following:
3 (i) Any person who regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of
4 assembling or collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose
5 of providing the information to an insurance institution or agent for insurance
6 transactions, including the furnishing of consumer reports or investigative consumer
7 reports to an insurance institution or agent for use in connection with an insurance
8 transaction.
9 (ii) The collection of personal information from insurance institutions,
10 agents, or other insurance support organizations for the purpose of detecting or
11 preventing fraud, material misrepresentation, or material nondisclosure in connection
12 with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity.
13 (iii) Agents, governmental institutions, insurance institutions, medical-care
14 institutions, and medical professionals shall not be considered "insurance support
15 organizations".
16 (b) For purposes of this Subsection, "news-gathering organization" means
17 any of the following:
18 (i) A newspaper, or news publication, printed or electronic, of current news
19 and intelligence of varied, broad, and general public interest, having been published
20 for a minimum of one year and that can provide documentation of membership in a
21 statewide or national press association, as represented by an employee thereof who
22 can provide documentation of his employment with the newspaper, wire service, or
23 news publication.
24 (ii) A radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable television
25 operator, or wire service as represented by an employee thereof who can provide
26 documentation of his employment.
27 (b) In Orleans Parish, the local police department may charge a reasonable
28 fee, not to exceed the sum of twenty dollars, to provide copies of accident reports.
29 State departments and agencies shall not be required to pay such fee.
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1 (2) All persons and their agents are prohibited from screening accident
2 reports if the person or his agent does not represent any of the persons involved in
3 a particular accident, the report for which could reasonably be expected to be
4 available. However, this limitation shall not prevent any person from requesting
5 particular reports regardless of whether the person represents any party in the
6 accident.
7 (3) (2) The information in the reports may be tabulated and included in the
8 statistical information published under the provisions of Subsection J H of this
9 Section.
10 (4) (3) Nothing in this Section shall prohibit the sale of police accident
11 reports or other driving record information to consumers of on-line driving records
12 under written contract for purchase of records with the Department of Public Safety
13 and Corrections.
14 (5) (4) The information in the reports may be used by the office of motor
15 vehicles for the purpose of maintaining operating records.
16 L. J. Whenever any person is involved in an accident a crash resulting in
17 injury to or death of any person, or property damage in excess of five hundred dollars
18 and the law enforcement officer investigating the accident crash has reason to believe
19 that there exists a medical condition which constitutes cause for revocation or
20 suspension of a license under the provisions of R.S. 32:414(E), notification of such
21 medical condition shall be made to the medical/conviction unit of the office of motor
22 vehicles of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, office of motor
23 vehicles, provided that the law enforcement officer first consults with his superior
24 officer as to his specific observations and such his superior officer concurs with the
25 issuing officer's belief.
26 M. K.(1) All police, state or local, shall immediately contact the Department
27 of Transportation and Development Development's district office or the local
28 roadway owner when called to the scene of an accident a crash where that
29 department's or local roadway owner's property has been damaged in an amount
30 which is estimated to exceed five hundred dollars.
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1 (2) All Upon completion of the investigation, all police, state or local, shall
2 make available, at no cost to the Department of Transportation and Development or
3 the local roadway owner, forward copies of accident crash reports which that
4 indicate damage to property of the Department of Transportation and Development
5 or the local roadway owner. in an amount which is estimated to exceed five hundred
6 dollars to the department's headquarters maintenance division within six days of the
7 date of the accident without cost to the department.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
APPROVED:
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