New Hampshire Crash Reporting Requirements
In New Hampshire, the crash reporting threshold is $1,000 in damage. Deadline to file: 15 days. Submit to: New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles.
- Damage threshold
- $1,000
A report is due for any crash that killed or injured someone, or that did more than $1,000 of damage to property. The test is "in excess of" $1,000, so damage of exactly $1,000 does not trigger it.
- Deadline to file
- 15 days
Within 15 days of the crash — but only if no police officer investigated it. If an officer did, the officer's report satisfies the duty and you file nothing. Failing to report is a misdemeanor, or a class B felony where there was death or personal injury.
- Submit to
- New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles
File the Operator's Report (DSMV 400) with NH Dept. of Safety, DMV — FR / Accidents, 23 Hazen Drive, Concord NH 03305. An investigating officer files form DSMV 159 instead. If police responded but could not get insurance information, each driver and owner must separately verify it online or on form DSMV 385.
New Hampshire sets $1,000 — higher than 10 of the 44 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $250 to $4,000.
How New Hampshire 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 15 days. 35 of the 43 with a day count give you less time, 5 give 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 New Hampshire the report goes to New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles. 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 New Hampshire
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 New Hampshire
Checked against the primary sources above on September 29, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.