New Mexico Crash Reporting Requirements
In New Mexico, the crash reporting threshold is $500 in damage. Deadline to file: 5 days. Submit to: New Mexico Department of Transportation.
- Damage threshold
- $500
A crash must be reported if anyone is hurt or killed, or if property damage looks like $500 or more. The figure was raised from $100 to $500 in 1991 and has not moved since; guides that quote $1,000 for New Mexico are wrong.
- Deadline to file
- 5 days
Two separate duties. First, immediate notice by the quickest means of communication to the police if the crash was inside a municipality, otherwise to the county sheriff or the nearest New Mexico State Police office (NMSA 1978, § 66-7-206). Then a written report to the Department of Transportation within five days (§ 66-7-207(A)). If the driver is physically unable to file it and does not own the vehicle, the owner has five days from learning of the crash.
- Submit to
- New Mexico Department of Transportation
NMDOT supplies the report forms and keeps the statewide crash database. An officer who investigates the crash files a Uniform Crash Report with NMDOT within 24 hours, which is what happens in most cases; the driver's own written report is the statute's backstop when no officer investigates.
New Mexico sets $500 — higher than 2 of the 44 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $250 to $4,000.
How New Mexico 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 5 days. 18 of the 43 with a day count give you less time, 20 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 Mexico the report goes to New Mexico Department of Transportation. 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 Mexico
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 Mexico
Checked against the primary sources above on September 28, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.