New Jersey Crash Reporting Requirements
In New Jersey, the crash reporting threshold is $500 in damage. Deadline to file: 10 days. Submit to: New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.
- Damage threshold
- $500
A crash must be reported if anyone is hurt or killed, or if any one person's property damage is more than $500.
- Deadline to file
- 10 days
First notify the local police, county police or State Police immediately. A written report is then due within 10 days, unless a police officer has already filed one with the MVC.
- Submit to
- New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission
Use the MVC's own forms. Knowingly failing to report can cost $30–$100, and the MVC may suspend your license and registration.
New Jersey sets $500 — higher than 2 of the 44 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $250 to $4,000.
How New Jersey compares with every other state
What this means after a crash
$500 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 2 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 10 days. 23 of the 43 with a day count give you less time, 8 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 Jersey the report goes to New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. 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 Jersey
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 Jersey
Checked against the primary sources above on September 22, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.