Oakland Accident Care is a chiropractic clinic in Downtown Oakland treating motor vehicle collision injuries — whiplash, cervical and lumbar strain, soft tissue injury and post-traumatic headaches. We put this page up because nearly every patient who walks in has the same two questions about their report, and getting the answer wrong costs them weeks.
This is the one that trips everyone up. People spend weeks chasing the Oakland Police Department for a report that the California Highway Patrol wrote, or the reverse, and nobody tells them until they've already lost the time.
If your collision happened on a city street — Broadway, International, MacArthur, Telegraph, Grand, anywhere on the grid — Oakland Police handled it. The report is requested from the City of Oakland at oaklandca.gov, in the Police section, under requesting a police report.
If it happened on I-880, I-580, I-980 or Highway 24 — including the MacArthur Maze and the on- and off-ramps — that is CHP jurisdiction, not Oakland Police. The CHP collision report is requested through chp.ca.gov.
If you're not sure which you were on, the report number the officer handed you usually identifies the agency, and so does the uniform in your memory: CHP wear tan.
No report number? The date, time and location are usually enough to find it. Don't let a missing number stop you from asking.
California collision reports are not open public records the way an incident log is. Under Vehicle Code section 20012, release is limited to people with a proper interest in the report.
| Drivers and parties involved | Yes |
|---|---|
| Their attorney or representative | Yes |
| Their insurance company | Yes |
| Parent or guardian of a minor involved | Yes |
| A curious neighbor, an employer, the press | No |
You will need to show identification and your relationship to the collision. If you're requesting on behalf of someone else, expect to document your authority to do it.
How long it takes. The report isn't ready when you leave the scene. The officer writes it, files it, and it goes through review before anyone can release a copy. That commonly runs several days to a few weeks. Request it early — people routinely wait a month before asking, then discover they still have to wait.
Plenty of Oakland collisions never get an officer. Minor damage, nobody visibly hurt, both drivers exchange information and leave. Then three days later the neck seizes up and there's no record anything happened.
Under Vehicle Code section 20008, a driver involved in a collision that caused injury or death must report it to police or the CHP within 24 hours when no officer investigated at the scene. That obligation exists independently of whether anyone showed up.
California requires form SR-1 filed with the DMV within 10 days of any collision involving injury, death, or more than $1,000 in property damage — regardless of fault, and regardless of whether police came. It is not the police report and it is not your insurance claim. Missing it can put your driving privilege at risk. File through the DMV Virtual Office at dmv.ca.gov.
No plate, no description, no witnesses — report it anyway and get a report number. Your own uninsured motorist coverage generally depends on there being a documented report, and without one you may have no route to it at all. This matters most for people hit while walking or cycling, who are left at the scene far more often.
Reports are written quickly, at night, in traffic, by someone managing a scene. Mistakes happen. Check:
Factual errors — wrong vehicle, wrong direction, misspelled name — can often be corrected by contacting the reporting agency and asking about a supplemental report. An officer's opinion about who caused it is a different matter and much harder to move. That's a question for an attorney, not for us.
About that injury notation. A great many people are marked as uninjured at the scene, because adrenaline was still masking everything and they honestly felt fine. That notation is a snapshot of one moment, not a medical finding, and it does not override an examination two days later when the cervical spine has stiffened.
It does mean the record starts against you, which is one more reason to be examined early rather than waiting to see if it settles down.
Through the City of Oakland at oaklandca.gov, in the Police section. Bring the date, location and report number.
Requests are submitted online through the City's portal, but you still have to prove you are a party with a proper interest before a copy is released. There is no open database you can browse.
You don't need theirs. As a party to the collision you can request it yourself using the date, time and location.
No. Nothing about your medical care waits on a document from the police. Come get examined and chase the paperwork in parallel.
No. You can request your own. If you do want counsel, the Alameda County Bar Association runs a State Bar–certified referral service. We don't recommend a specific firm and take no fee from any of them.
This page is general information about a public process. It is not legal advice, and it is not medical advice. Rules and portals change — verify current requirements with the agency before relying on anything here.
Same-day appointments, seven days a week, in Downtown Oakland at 8th and Broadway. Dr. Ben Glass sees you himself, in English or Spanish. We verify your coverage first and tell you in writing what you'll owe, if anything.
📞 (510) 606-0007 Free Crash Kit