How to Get Your Selma Crash Report and What It Does and Does Not Prove
Updated: 1 day ago
An Alabama crash report can identify the drivers, vehicles, insurers, location, witnesses, and responding agency after a Selma wreck. It can also preserve an officer’s observations and diagram. It does not decide civil fault, set the value of an injury claim, or replace photographs, video, witness testimony, vehicle evidence, and medical records.
The most useful way to treat the report is as an investigative map. Read it carefully. Then check its account against the evidence that existed before the officer arrived.
Reviewed by Elliott Owen Lipinsky • October 2026
How do you order an Alabama crash report?
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s crash-report page says a report may be purchased online or in person at an ALEA Driver License office. The current listed fee is $15. ALEA accepts cash, credit cards, cashier’s checks, and money orders for its listed services; it says personal checks are not accepted.
You will usually need enough information to locate the report, such as the report number, crash date, location, or names of people involved. A report may not appear immediately. Under Alabama Code § 32-10-7, the investigating officer forwards the completed uniform report within 24 hours after completing the investigation. That is not a promise that every report will be ready 24 hours after the wreck.
If Selma Police prepared the report, the City of Selma also publishes a police-report request page with the department’s current contact information. Start with the report number or agency shown on any exchange card, citation, or incident paperwork.
Who is allowed to obtain the report?
Section 32-10-7 limits access to specified people and entities. The list includes people involved in the crash, a parent or guardian of an involved minor, certain representatives or heirs of a person who died, an involved person’s insurer, an involved person’s attorney with written signed consent, a vehicle owner or lienholder, and certain governmental entities. A subpoena or court order may also authorize disclosure.
That restriction is one reason a person who merely knows the date and location may still be unable to buy the report. Use ALEA’s current instructions rather than a third-party solicitation that arrives after the crash.
What information should you check?
Compare the report with the documents and photographs you already have. Check:
names, addresses, driver-license information, and vehicle ownership;
insurance companies and policy information;
the date, time, road, intersection, and direction of travel;
listed passengers and witnesses;
the diagram, vehicle damage, and sequence of events;
weather, lighting, road-surface, and traffic-control entries;
citations and contributing-factor codes; and
the officer’s narrative and any supplemental report.
A misspelled name is different from a disputed conclusion about how the collision happened. Separate objective errors from disagreements about fault. That makes a correction request more precise and preserves the real dispute.
Does the crash report prove who caused the wreck?
No. The report records an investigation; it is not a judgment. An officer may have arrived after the vehicles moved, relied on conflicting accounts, or lacked access to video and other evidence discovered later. An insurer may give the report considerable weight, but the insurer is not bound to accept every entry. A court does not surrender the fault question to the form.
Admissibility is a separate issue if a lawsuit is filed. The official notes to Alabama Rule of Evidence 803 caution that police accident reports are not automatically admissible as public records. Trustworthiness, foundation, hearsay, and the difference between factual observations and legal conclusions can matter. Alabama Code § 32-10-11 also restricts the use of certain accident reports. The answer can depend on the report, the statement within it, and the reason it is offered.
The practical point is simpler: preserve the report, but do not build the entire claim on it.
What should you do if the report contains an error?
Contact the agency that prepared it. Identify the report number, the exact entry you believe is wrong, and the objective source supporting the requested correction. That might be a driver’s license, registration, insurance declaration, time-stamped photograph, or video. Keep the request and the agency’s response.
An agency may correct a clerical mistake, add a supplement, decline to change an officer’s conclusion, or follow another procedure. Do not alter the report yourself. If a disputed entry affects fault or insurance coverage, preserve the contradictory evidence and have the issue evaluated rather than assuming a correction request will resolve it.
Evidence the report may not contain
A complete investigation may also require:
photographs and video from before the vehicles were moved;
911, dispatch, body-camera, or dash-camera records, when available and lawfully obtainable;
nearby business or residential surveillance video;
unlisted witness information;
vehicle event data, inspection records, and repair photographs;
phone, work, delivery, or fleet records when legally relevant and obtainable; and
medical records connecting symptoms and treatment to the collision.
Some evidence can disappear quickly. A report can help identify what to request, but it does not preserve a business’s video or a vehicle’s electronic data by itself.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an Alabama crash report cost?
ALEA currently lists the fee as $15. Confirm the amount and accepted payment methods on ALEA’s page when you order because fees and procedures can change.
Can a passenger request the report?
Section 32-10-7 includes a passenger involved in the accident among the people who may request it.
What if I do not know which agency wrote the report?
Check any exchange card, citation, tow paperwork, or incident number. The article on who investigates a Selma crash explains how location affects the likely responding agency. ALEA’s report system is another practical starting point.
What if the report blames me?
Do not ignore it, but do not treat it as the final result. Compare the stated basis with photographs, video, vehicle damage, witnesses, traffic rules, and the other available evidence. Alabama’s contributory-negligence rule makes an unsupported allegation of shared fault worth addressing early.
Request a review of a Selma crash claim
If you were injured in Selma or elsewhere in Dallas County, review the firm’s Selma car-accident guide or request a free case review. Call (334) 230-7986 if a deadline, serious injury, or evidence-preservation issue may require prompt attention.
For Dallas County court links, crash-report starting points, and regional crash figures, use the West Alabama court and road-safety resource.
This article provides general information, not legal advice. Reading it or contacting the Law Offices of Elliott Owen Lipinsky does not create an attorney-client relationship. Representation begins only after the firm accepts a matter in writing. Do not send confidential, highly sensitive, or time-critical information through a website form.
