South Carolina Crash Reporting Requirements
In South Carolina, the crash reporting threshold is $1,000 in damage. Deadline to file: 15 days. Submit to: SCDMV.
- Damage threshold
- $1,000
A crash must be reported when anyone is injured or killed, or when total property damage reaches an apparent $1,000.
- Deadline to file
- 15 days
Fifteen days from the date of the crash. The written report is due only when no law enforcement officer investigated — otherwise the investigating officer files it within twenty-four hours of finishing.
- Submit to
- SCDMV
The driver's report goes to the Department of Motor Vehicles, not to the police, and it doubles as an insurance check: failing to return it properly verified is prima facie evidence that the vehicle was uninsured. Separately, an officer at a crash involving injury, death or $400 or more of property damage hands the driver an insurance verification form that must also be returned to SCDMV within fifteen days, and injury or death must be reported to the nearest police, sheriff or Highway Patrol office immediately by the quickest means.
South Carolina sets $1,000 — higher than 10 of the 44 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $250 to $4,000.
How South Carolina 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 South Carolina the report goes to SCDMV. 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 South Carolina
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 South Carolina
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.