How to Read Police Report Codes in North Carolina

Reading a North Carolina crash report means matching the numbers and letters in each box on the DMV-349 to the definitions in the NCDOT’s official code guide. Every entry on the form, from the driver’s actions to the weather, comes from a fixed list of codes that officers pick from, and the same list is publicly available for you to read. If you want to know how to read police report codes in North Carolina, you need two documents open next to your report: the Instruction Manual for the Preparation of the North Carolina Crash Report, last revised in February 2023, and the condensed DMV-349 code sheet.¹² The manual is the same one the responding officer used. The code sheet is faster for quick lookups.

Not every code carries equal weight. A handful of boxes decide fault, a handful describe physical facts about the collision, and the rest fill in context. The sections below walk through the codes that actually change outcomes, starting with the ones insurance adjusters look at first.

Driver Contributing Circumstance Codes (Boxes 14–19)

This is the section that decides most claims. Boxes 14 through 16 record up to three contributing circumstances for Driver 1, and Boxes 17 through 19 do the same for Driver 2. The officer chooses from a list of 38 numerical codes describing what each driver did, or failed to do, that contributed to the crash.¹

The codes that show up most often in disputed claims include:

Code 0: No contributing circumstances indicated
Code 2: Disregarded stop sign
Code 6: Exceeded authorized speed limit
Code 14: Overcorrected or oversteered
Code 19: Failed to yield right of way
Code 25: Followed too closely
Code 30: Alcohol use
Code 31: Drug use
Code 35: Distracted by electronic communication device (cell phone, texting)

Pay attention to the difference between codes 35 and 38. Code 35 covers cell phone and texting distraction. Code 38 means the driver was distracted by something outside the vehicle. If your report shows a 38 where you expected a 35, the officer recorded a different kind of distraction than a phone, and that distinction can matter when fault is argued.²

These codes matter more in North Carolina than they would in most states. North Carolina is one of the few jurisdictions that still follows pure contributory negligence. If you are found even partially at fault, you can be barred from recovering any compensation from the other driver. A single contributing circumstance code entered against you gives an adjuster a ready-made reason to deny the claim, so read Boxes 14 through 19 first and read them carefully.

Crash Type and Roadway Codes (Boxes 10–13)

Boxes 10 and 11 capture the first harmful event and the most harmful event at the crash level. These describe the type of collision, not what the drivers did. A rear-end collision where the lead vehicle was slowing or stopped is coded as 21. A head-on collision is coded as 27. Non-collision events also live here, such as running off the right side of the road (code 1) or a jackknife (code 4).²

Boxes 12 and 13 record roadway contributing circumstances, meaning physical conditions of the road itself that played a role. These are separate from the driver contributing circumstances in Boxes 14 through 19. If entries appear in both sets, the officer concluded that both road conditions and driver behavior contributed.¹

Vehicle Maneuver and Damage Codes (Boxes 49 and 43)

Box 49, on the back of the form, records what each vehicle was doing immediately before impact. Common entries are code 4 (going straight ahead), code 7 (right turn), code 8 (left turn), code 10 (backing, which takes priority when it was happening simultaneously with another maneuver), and code 11 (slowing or stopping).¹

Box 43 uses the Traffic Accident Damage (TAD) system. It is not a single number. It combines a letter code showing where the vehicle was hit with a severity number from 0 (no damage) to 7 (most severe). FD-5 means distributed front-end damage at severity 5. BR-3 means damage to the right rear corner at severity 3.¹

The letter codes cover the impact area:³

FC / FD: Front concentrated (narrow object like a pole) or front distributed (broad contact with another vehicle)
FL / FR: Front left or front right corner
BC / BD: Rear concentrated or rear distributed
BL / BR: Rear left or rear right corner
LP / RP: Left or right side near the passenger compartment
LD / RD: Left or right side distributed (sideswipe)
L&T / R&T: Side and top damage from a rollover

Cross-check these against the narrative. A report describing a rear-end collision but showing front-end damage codes is a signal that something was recorded wrong, and it is worth flagging for correction.

Injury Severity Codes (Box 32)

Box 32 records the injury status of each person using the KABCO scale:

K: Killed
A: Serious (disabling) injury, meaning the person cannot perform normal activities for at least one day after the crash
B: Minor injury
C: Possible injury
O: No injury

These are on-scene assessments. They do not account for injuries diagnosed later at a hospital.¹ An O or C rating does not stop you from pursuing a claim for injuries that turned out to be worse than they looked at the scene, but it does give an adjuster a starting point to argue the injuries were minimal. Medical records become the bridge between the scene rating and the actual diagnosis.

Environmental Codes (Boxes 3–7)

The first seven boxes on the form capture environmental conditions, and they interact with the driver codes in ways that matter.

Box 3 records the road surface condition: 1 for dry, 2 for wet, 4 for ice, 5 for snow. Boxes 4 and 5 capture up to two weather conditions using codes such as 1 for clear, 3 for rain, 4 for snow, and 5 for fog. Box 6 records whether the officer believed weather contributed. Box 7 records ambient light: 1 for daylight, 4 for darkness on a lighted roadway, 5 for darkness on an unlit roadway.²¹

The gap between codes 4 and 5 in Box 7 matters because driving expectations shift when street lighting is present. Environmental codes also change the weight of driver codes. Wet roads (Box 3, code 2) paired with a speeding code (Box 14, code 6) makes a stronger negligence picture than either alone. Environmental codes pointing to dangerous conditions can also support an argument that road conditions, not driver error, caused the crash.

Commercial Vehicle Codes

If a commercial motor vehicle was involved, extra fields kick in. Box 41 records the vehicle configuration, such as a tractor pulling a semi-trailer (code 14) or a tractor pulling doubles (code 15). Box 82 identifies the trailer type, from a boat trailer (code 1) to a double trailer (code 12). Box 45 describes the cargo body type, with categories including cargo tank (code 6), flatbed (code 7), and dump truck (code 8).¹ Commercial vehicles are subject to federal safety regulations, so the configuration can flag whether weight limits, cargo securement, or hours-of-service rules are in play.

Getting Your Report

You need the report itself before any of this helps. Officers must file a DMV-349 whenever a crash results in injury, death, or property damage estimated at $1,000 or more.⁴⁵⁶ Access to the personal information on the report is limited under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act to authorized recipients, such as a party to the crash, an insurer, or an attorney handling the case.¹

Fixing a Wrong Code

Errors happen. Corrections go through the investigating officer, not the DMV. North Carolina uses supplemental crash reports, filed on a separate DMV-349, to correct information on the original. The officer only needs to include the correction along with the date, time, and location from the original report.⁷

To ask for a correction, contact the law enforcement agency that responded. Point to the specific box number, name the code you believe should be there, and cite the instructional manual. Bring evidence: photos, witness statements, medical records. Officers respond better to concrete documentation than to disagreement with their judgment. The supplemental report then moves through the same channels as the original.

Move quickly. Officer memory of the scene fades, and an old report with entrenched errors is harder to fix than a recent one. Because insurance adjusters read the DMV-349 codes first and often base a liability call on them alone, catching a coding error early is one of the more practical steps you can take after a crash.

1
Connect NCDOT. DMV-349 Instructional Manual
2
Connect NCDOT. Crash Report Form DMV-349 Code Sheets
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Connect NCDOT. Vehicle Damage Scale for Traffic Accident Investigators
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North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 20 – Section 20-166.1
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NCDMV. Request for Crash Report Form TR-67A
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NCDMV. Order a Crash Report
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Connect NCDOT. North Carolina Crash Report Instruction Manual