How to Fill Out and Submit the Texas CR-2: Driver’s Crash Report

The Texas CR-2 driver’s crash report, still known to most drivers as the Blue Form, is a one-page self-report you complete after a collision that no police officer investigated. You fill in the crash details, sign it, and send the completed form to your own auto insurance company. Since Senate Bill 312 took effect on September 1, 2017, TxDOT no longer collects or stores these reports, so the insurer is now the correct destination.¹

When the CR-2 Applies

The form was designed for crashes that either caused injury or death, or produced apparent property damage of $1,000 or more to any one person’s property.² That threshold still prints on the first page of the form itself. SB 312 repealed the statute that made filing mandatory, so skipping the report is no longer a criminal matter. Filing one anyway is worth the ten minutes for anything past a light bump, particularly if you plan to open an insurance claim or if the other driver’s version of events might drift later.

If an officer did respond and investigate the scene, they file their own report on a CR-3, the Peace Officer’s Crash Report. In that case you do not need a CR-2, though you can still complete one for your own files.

Where to Get a Blank Form

TxDOT no longer hosts or distributes the CR-2.¹ Working copies are still available from several places:

Many local police departments post a downloadable PDF, including Amarillo PD.²
NHTSA keeps an archived copy at nhtsa.gov.³
Some county sheriff’s offices, such as Fort Bend County, link to the form and its instructions.⁴
Most auto insurers keep blank CR-2s on hand or can email you one.

Print a blank copy before you need it. A form in the glove box lets you start recording details at the scene, while memory is fresh and the other driver is still there.

What to Gather Before You Fill It Out

The form asks for information you can only get at the scene. Trying to reconstruct it days later almost always leaves gaps. Collect the following:

The other driver’s full name, mailing address, driver’s license number and issuing state, and date of birth.²
For every vehicle involved: VIN, year, make, model, vehicle type, and license plate number with state and year.
Owner name and address if the driver is not the registered owner.
Insurance company name (not the agent), company mailing address, and policy number.
Location details: county, city, road, nearest intersection or distance from the nearest town, posted speed limit, and whether the crash happened in a construction zone.
For each injured person: name, address, age, sex, description of the injury, whether they wore a seatbelt, and whether anyone was killed.
Names and phone numbers of any witnesses.

Photograph the other driver’s license, insurance card, and license plate before you leave. Copying long numbers by hand under stress is where errors creep in.

Filling Out the Form

The CR-2 is a single page with instructions on the reverse. Fields marked with an asterisk are required. Use blue or black ink only.³

Date and Location

Write the date as MM/DD/YYYY, add the day of the week, and give the hour with AM or PM. If the crash happened at exactly noon or midnight, write the word out instead of checking a box.² In the location block, fill in the county and city, then the road name and block number. If the crash was at an intersection, name the crossing street. If not, give the distance and direction from the nearest cross street.

Vehicles

The form separates “#1 — Your Vehicle” from “#2 — Other Vehicle.” For unit #2, first check whether it was a motor vehicle, train, pedestrian, bicyclist, or other.² Enter the VIN, year, make, model, type, and plate for each. Add the driver’s name, address, license number, and date of birth, plus the owner’s information if different. Each vehicle section closes with an insurance block: company name, company mailing address, and policy number. The form also asks for the approximate cost to repair your own vehicle; give an honest estimate.

Injuries and Other Property

The injuries section has space for two people. For each, mark whether they were a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or other, then fill in name, address, age, and a plain description of the injury. Note seatbelt use. If anyone died, mark “Was Person Killed?” and enter the date of death.² If anything besides a vehicle was damaged, such as a guardrail, stop sign, fence, or mailbox, describe the object, name the owner, explain the damage, and estimate the repair cost in the “Damage to Property Other Than Vehicles” section.

Narrative

The narrative is the most important part of the form and the part people rush. The instruction reads “State Briefly What Happened.”³ Stick to facts: your direction of travel, your speed, what you saw, and the sequence of events. Skip blame and skip guesses about what the other driver was thinking. “I was traveling northbound on Main Street at approximately 30 mph. The other vehicle turned left from the southbound lane into my path” is far more useful than “the other driver wasn’t paying attention.” If you run out of room, continue on a separate sheet and note the attachment on the form. Do not send photographs with the form.

Signature

Sign and date at the bottom. The driver must sign. If the driver cannot physically complete the report, someone else may fill it out on their behalf, but the form must include an explanation of why the driver could not sign it.²

Where to Submit the Completed Form

Send the completed CR-2 to your own auto insurance company. Do not mail it to TxDOT; the department stopped accepting these reports on September 1, 2017, and purged all CR-2 forms from its records on January 1, 2019.⁴ Get it to your insurer as quickly as you can. Most policies require prompt notice of a collision, and a completed CR-2 gives the adjuster a clean starting point for the claim.

If the other driver’s insurer contacts you, you are not obligated to share your CR-2 with them. It is your document. Let your own insurance company, or an attorney, decide what to hand over.

Keep a Copy for at Least Two Years

Sign and copy the form before you send the original. A cloud-backed scan and a paper copy in a home file both work. Texas gives you two years from the date of the collision to file a personal injury or property damage lawsuit,⁵ so hold onto the CR-2 and related paperwork for at least that long.

Why Accuracy Matters

Everything you write on the CR-2 is a signed statement, and your insurer will lean on it when evaluating the claim. False or misleading information on a document submitted to an insurance company can be prosecuted under Texas Penal Code Section 35.02. The penalty scales with the value of the claim: a false claim under $750 is a misdemeanor, and one worth $2,500 or more becomes a felony.⁶

Beyond the criminal risk, an insurer that catches inaccurate information on your CR-2 can deny the claim or cancel the policy. When you genuinely don’t know a detail, say so in the narrative rather than filling in a number. An honest “I don’t know” beats an invented figure every time. Treat repair estimates the same way: write your best approximation and label it as an estimate.

1
Texas Department of Transportation. Crash Records Forms for Law Enforcement
2
Amarillo Police Department. CR-2 Texas Driver’s Crash Report Form
3
NHTSA. Driver’s Crash Report CR-2
4
Fort Bend County. Driver’s Crash Report
5
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 – Two-Year Limitations Period
6
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 35.02 – Insurance Fraud