NYS MV-104 Crash Report: 10-Day Deadline and How to File

If you were in a car accident in New York, you personally have 10 days to file the NYS MV-104 crash report with the DMV whenever someone was injured or killed or property damage to any one person exceeded $1,000. The obligation is yours as the driver, it exists whether or not the police showed up, and missing the deadline is a misdemeanor that can cost you your license.

When You Have to File

Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 605 sets three triggers. Any one of them, on its own, requires you to file:

Property damage over $1,000 to any single person’s property, including your own vehicle. You don’t add losses together; if one person’s damage alone crosses $1,000, you file.
Any personal injury to anyone involved, however minor it looked at the time.
A death resulting from the collision.

A police response at the scene does not relieve you of this. The statute’s only carve-out is for on-duty police officers, correction officers, and firefighters operating department vehicles whose owners have already filed. Every other driver files their own MV-104.¹

The 10-Day Deadline and What a Miss Costs

The report must reach the DMV within 10 days of the crash. For mailed reports, the postmark counts. That window is shorter than most drivers expect, so file early even if you’re still sorting out insurance details.

Failure to file is a misdemeanor under Section 605, and so is providing false information on the form. On top of the criminal classification, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles can suspend your driver’s license, your vehicle registration, or both until you file. The suspension doesn’t expire; it stays in place until the report is actually on record. Drivers sometimes learn about it months later during an unrelated traffic stop, and by then driving on the suspended license is a separate offense.¹²

How to File

You have two options: file online or mail a paper form. Online is faster and gives you immediate confirmation.

Online

The DMV runs an Online Motorist Crash Report Portal for electronic filing. You need an NY.gov ID. If you don’t have one, you can create the account on the DMV’s filing page, set up security questions and two-factor authentication, and come back to the portal. Account setup takes a few minutes.²

By Mail

Download or pick up the MV-104 form, complete it, and mail the original to:

Crash Records Center
6 Empire State Plaza
PO Box 2925
Albany, NY 12220-0925³

Keep a copy of what you sent. If you mail it, keep proof of postage too. If the DMV later says the report never arrived, that receipt is your only defense.

What the Form Asks For

Gather the following at the scene or shortly after, for each driver and vehicle:

Your driver license number as printed.
Vehicle registration details, with the registrant’s name and address exactly as on the registration.
The insurance company code, a three-digit number on your New York State Insurance Identification Card. It’s separate from your policy number and identifies the carrier in the DMV’s system.

The form also wants a written description of how the crash happened and the direction each vehicle was traveling before impact. Keep it factual: speeds, lane positions, signal color, weather, what you observed. Don’t speculate about the other driver or assign blame.³

For crashes between exactly two motor vehicles, you pick a number from a pre-printed collision diagram that matches how the vehicles met. For one-vehicle crashes, three or more vehicles, or a pedestrian or cyclist, select “9” and draw your own diagram in the space provided. The form also has vehicle outlines where you mark the exact points of contact. The DMV uses these visual sections to cross-check your written narrative, so fill them in carefully.³

Identify the crash location precisely: street names, nearest cross street, landmarks. Vague locations slow processing and cause matching problems if other records from the same incident need to be linked to yours.

The MV-104 Is Not the Police Report

This confuses a lot of drivers. The MV-104 is the motorist crash report, filed by you. The police crash report is a separate document, filed by law enforcement on form MV-104A (or MV-104AN in New York City). Police must investigate and report crashes involving death or personal injury, but their report does not replace yours.⁴

The two documents serve different functions. The police report captures the officer’s investigation and findings. Your MV-104 records your own account. Insurers and attorneys often pull both, and inconsistencies between them can matter in a disputed claim. If injuries were involved, expect both reports to exist in the system.

Filing With the DMV Doesn’t Start a No-Fault Claim

New York is a no-fault state, and your own insurer pays for your medical bills and lost earnings after a crash regardless of fault. Sending the MV-104 to the DMV does not begin that claim. Notifying your insurance company is a separate step with a separate deadline.

Under New York’s no-fault regulations, you must give your insurer written notice of the accident within 30 days of the crash. The notice needs enough detail to identify you as the injured person along with the time, place, and circumstances. Missing the 30-day window without a clear, reasonable justification lets the insurer deny the claim outright.⁵

Commercial Trucks and Buses

If the crash involved a commercial truck or bus, the standard MV-104 may not be enough. New York uses an additional form, the MV-104S (Truck and Bus Supplemental Police Accident Report), for certain commercial-vehicle crashes. If you drive commercially or manage a fleet, confirm with the DMV whether the supplement applies before you file.⁴

Getting a Copy Later

Once your report has been processed, you can search for and download a certified copy through the DMV’s online portal. You need at least one of two things to look it up: the 8-digit DMV case number or the plate number of a vehicle involved. You’ll also certify that you’re legally authorized to receive the report.⁶

Ordering through the direct online portal costs $7 for the search plus $15 for the report, or $22 total. Through the DMV’s Records Request Navigator, the search fee is $10 instead of $7, bringing the total to $25. Either way, you get a certified copy that insurers and courts accept.⁶

1
New York State Senate. New York Vehicle and Traffic Law 605 – Report Required Upon Accident
2
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. File a Motorist Crash (Accident) Report
3
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. MV-104 – Report of Motor Vehicle Crash
4
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Police Crash Report Submission Instructions
5
Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp. Codes R. and Regs. Tit. 11 65-1.1 – Requirements for Initial and Additional Personal Injury Protection Benefits
6
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Order and Access Motor Vehicle Crash (Accident) Reports