(1) The department shall prepare and, upon request, supply to police departments, sheriffs, and other appropriate agencies or individuals forms for crash reports as required in this chapter, suitable with respect to the persons required to make such reports and the purposes to be served. The form must call for sufficiently detailed information to disclose, with reference to a vehicle crash, the cause and conditions then existing and the persons and vehicles involved. Every crash report form must call for the policy numbers of liability insurance and the names of carriers covering any vehicle involved in a crash required to be reported by this chapter.

(2) Every crash report required to be made in writing must be made on the appropriate form approved by the department and must contain all the information required therein, including:

(a) The date, time, and location of the crash;

(b) A description of the vehicles involved;

(c) The names and addresses of the parties involved; however, in the event of a crash involving a railroad train, including crashes covered by s. 316.027, s. 316.061, s. 316.065, or s. 316.066, the collection of the information specified in this paragraph shall be at the discretion of the law enforcement officer having jurisdiction to investigate the crash;

(d) The names and addresses of all drivers and passengers in the motor vehicles involved; however, in the event of a crash involving a railroad train, including crashes covered by s. 316.027, s. 316.061, s. 316.065, or s. 316.066, the collection of the information specified in this paragraph shall be at the discretion of the law enforcement officer having jurisdiction to investigate the crash;

(e) The names and addresses of witnesses;

(f) The name, badge number, and law enforcement agency of the officer investigating the crash; and

(g) The names of the insurance companies of the motor vehicles involved in the crash,

unless not available. A member of a railroad train crew or a passenger on a railroad train is not a passenger for purposes of this section. In the event of a crash involving a railroad train, a member of the railroad train crew must furnish the information in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), and (e) and, upon request of the law enforcement officer having jurisdiction to investigate the crash, the railroad train engineer’s or conductor’s federal certification pursuant to 49 C.F.R. part 240 or part 242. The absence of information in such written crash reports regarding the existence of passengers in the motor vehicles involved in the crash constitutes a rebuttable presumption that no such passengers were involved in the reported crash. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, a crash report produced electronically by a law enforcement officer must, at a minimum, contain the same information as is called for on those forms approved by the department.

History.—s. 1, ch. 71-135; s. 2, ch. 74-201; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 11, ch. 96-350; s. 90, ch. 99-248; s. 1, ch. 2006-305; s. 2, ch. 2019-69.