Arkansas Crash Reporting Requirements
Crash reporting in Arkansas: $1,000 to the state, $3,000 to police. Deadline to file: 30 days. Submit to: Nearest law enforcement agency, then the Office of Driver Services.
- Damage threshold
- $1,000
Two duties with two different triggers, and most guides only mention one. You must notify the nearest law enforcement agency immediately if anyone was injured or killed or total property damage looks like $3,000 or more (§ 27-53-202(a)) — that figure was $1,000 until Act 815 of 2023 raised it. Separately, you must file an SR-1 crash report with the Office of Driver Services within 30 days if damage to the property of any one person exceeds $1,000 or anyone was injured or killed, no matter who was at fault (§ 27-19-501). So the lower number is the one that actually decides whether you have paperwork to file.
- Deadline to file
- 30 days
Thirty days for the SR-1 report to the Office of Driver Services. The call to the nearest law enforcement agency has to be made immediately, and everyone involved has to stay reachable for the investigating officers. Failing or refusing to report is a $100 to $1,000 fine, and a willful refusal costs the driver's license (§ 27-53-201).
- Submit to
- Nearest law enforcement agency, then the Office of Driver Services
The immediate notice goes to whichever law enforcement agency is nearest. The written SR-1 goes to the Office of Driver Services, which uses it to decide whether you must post security for the crash. Copies of the police report itself cost $10 if you were involved in the crash and $25 if you were not, plus $1.50 a page for supplements, from the Division of Arkansas State Police or the county or city agency that wrote it (§ 27-53-210(b)).
Arkansas sets $1,000 — higher than 10 of the 44 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $250 to $4,000.
How Arkansas compares with every other state
What this means after a crash
$1,000 is the number to keep in mind, and it is a damage figure rather than an injury one: a crash with no one hurt still has to be reported once the damage reaches it. Only 10 of the 44 that set a dollar figure start lower. Note what the threshold is measured against — apparent damage at the scene, not the final repair invoice — so the call has to be made before anyone has priced anything.
You have 30 days. No jurisdiction we cover gives you more. The clock runs from the crash, not from the insurance claim or the repair estimate, and it keeps running while you wait to hear whether the police filed a report of their own.
Who receives it matters as much as when. In Arkansas the report goes to Nearest law enforcement agency, then the Office of Driver Services. An officer writing a report at the scene is not automatically the report the state is waiting for — where the two are separate, the table above says who receives yours.
Every statute cited for Arkansas
What changed
August 1, 2023
Crash reporting threshold tripled from $1,000 to $3,000
Act 815 of 2023 (HB1633) amended Arkansas Code § 27-53-202(a)(1). A driver now has to notify the nearest law enforcement agency immediately only when someone is injured or killed or total property damage reaches an apparent $3,000, up from $1,000. Guides still quoting $1,000 for the police call are describing the pre-2023 law. What the Act did not touch is the second, quieter duty: § 27-19-501 still requires an SR-1 crash report to the Office of Driver Services within 30 days whenever damage to any one person's property exceeds $1,000 or anyone is hurt, so the $1,000 line survives on the paperwork side. The Governor approved the Act on April 13, 2023; it carries no emergency clause, so it took effect with the rest of the session's general acts 90 days after the General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 1, 2023. The governor signed it on 2023.04.13; with no emergency clause it took effect on 2023.08.01, ninety days after the session adjourned.
Arkansas State Legislature — Acts 2023, No. 815 (HB1633), enrolled
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- The Crash You Are Required to Report Is Smaller Than You ThinkCrash-report triggers start at $500 in Georgia and New Jersey and reach $3,000 for a Virginia police report; Florida's is $500 before 1 October 2026 and $2,000 from that date, and Pennsylvania and Maryland use no dollar figure at all.
More on Arkansas
Checked against the primary sources above on September 27, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.