Illinois Crash Reporting Requirements

Reporting duties kick in at a dollar threshold that is lower than most drivers expect.

Damage threshold: $1,500
Notice is required for injury or death, or property damage over $1,500 — but the threshold drops to $500 if any vehicle in the crash was required to carry liability insurance and did not. Any school bus crash with damage or injury must also be reported.
Submit to: Local police, county sheriff, or Illinois State Police
If no officer is at the scene, the driver must give notice by the fastest available means: the local police department inside a municipality, otherwise the nearest sheriff's office or Illinois State Police headquarters. There is no longer a driver's written report — the driver's 10-day written crash report to IDOT was repealed on August 20, 2021, and the investigating officer now files the report instead.

What changed

January 1, 2025
School bus crashes added to the immediate-notice rule
P.A. 103-1047 restructured 625 ILCS 5/11-407. Immediate notice to police is now also required whenever a school bus is involved in a crash resulting in any property damage, injury or death, and whenever a crash within 50 feet of a school bus injures or kills someone boarding or leaving it — with no dollar threshold.
Illinois General Assembly — 625 ILCS 5/11-407
August 20, 2021
Drivers no longer file their own written crash report
P.A. 102-560 repealed 625 ILCS 5/11-406, which had required the driver of a crash involving injury, death or property damage over $1,500 to forward a written report to the IDOT Administrator within 10 days. Drivers now only owe immediate notice to police under 11-407, and the investigating officer files the report. Guides that still tell Illinois drivers to send a written crash report to the state within 10 days are describing a repealed section.
Illinois General Assembly — 625 ILCS 5/11-406 (repealed)