Georgia’s SR-13 Form: What to Do When Police Didn’t Come to Your Accident

Police don’t make it to every crash — minor fender-benders, private-property collisions in parking lots, or accidents where everyone initially waved it off. The problem surfaces later, when your insurer asks for the police report and there isn’t one. Georgia’s answer is the SR-13.

What the SR-13 is

The Personal Report of Accident (Form SR-13, printed as DDS-190) is a Georgia Department of Driver Services form for self-reporting a crash. According to Glynn County’s guidance, you complete it “when a traffic accident occurs and a law enforcement officer is not called to make a report,” the report is for your personal use, and it should not be mailed to the Department of Driver Services — for private-property accidents, it goes to your insurance company. You can download the form here (hosted by Athens-Clarke County; many Georgia agencies distribute the same DDS-190).

How to fill it out

The form’s own instructions are strict — incomplete forms trigger a supplemental report. In practice:

• Answer every question; write “not known” rather than leaving blanks.
• Provide exact names, addresses, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers for each driver and owner, plus each vehicle’s year, make, and type.
• Describe damage to any non-vehicle property — what was hit, the nature of the damage, approximate repair cost, and the owner’s name and address.
• Write the narrative referring to vehicles by number (“Vehicle #1 was stopped when Vehicle #2…”), use a second form or same-size sheet if you run out of room, and sign it.

Why you should still file a police report

The SR-13 is your account. It has none of the independent weight of an officer’s report — no scene observations, no contributing-factor codes, no third-party credibility with the insurance adjuster. Georgia law also requires police involvement for any real crash: O.C.G.A. § 40-6-273 obligates drivers to immediately notify local police, the sheriff, or the state patrol when an accident involves injury, death, or property damage of $500 or more. If that’s your crash and no officer came, go to the nearest station and file a report as soon as possible — then use the SR-13 to fill any gap in the meantime.

If a report was filed after all

People sometimes assume no report exists because they never got a copy — but if an officer responded, there almost certainly is one. Check BuyCrash under the responding agency a week after the crash, or see every way to get your Georgia crash report. And if your accident type is eligible, we’ll track it down for you free.