2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 189 - TRAFFIC REGULATIONS -- VEHICLE EQUIPMENT AND STORAGE 189.635 Vehicle accident reports by operators, law enforcement officers, and agencies -- Availability to parties to accident and news-gathering organizations -- Contracts with outside entities to provide vehicle's accident history and electronic access to reports -- Administrative regulations.
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189.635 Vehicle accident reports by operators, law enforcement officers, and
agencies -- Availability to parties to accident and news-gathering
organizations -- Contracts with outside entities to provide vehicle's
accident history and electronic access to reports -- Administrative
regulations.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, Department of Kentucky State Police,
shall be responsible for maintaining a reporting system for all vehicle accidents
which occur within the Commonwealth. Such accident reports shall be utilized
for such purposes as will improve the traffic safety program in the
Commonwealth involving the collection, processing, storing, and dissemination
of such data and the establishment of procedures by administrative regulations
to insure that uniform definitions, classifications, and other federal
requirements are in compliance.
Any person operating a vehicle on the highways of this state who is involved in
an accident resulting in fatal or nonfatal personal injury to any person or
damage to the vehicle rendering the vehicle inoperable shall be required to
immediately notify a law enforcement officer having jurisdiction. In the event
the operator fails to notify or is incapable of notifying a law enforcement officer
having jurisdiction, such responsibility shall rest with the owner of the vehicle or
any occupant of the vehicle at the time of the accident. A law enforcement
officer having jurisdiction shall investigate the accident and file a written report
of the accident with his law enforcement agency.
Every law enforcement agency whose officers investigate a vehicle accident of
which a report must be made as required in this chapter shall file a report of the
accident with the Department of Kentucky State Police within ten (10) days
after investigation of the accident upon forms supplied by the department.
Any person operating a vehicle on the highways of this state who is involved in
an accident resulting in any property damage exceeding five hundred dollars
($500) in which an investigation is not conducted by a law enforcement officer
shall file a written report of the accident with the Department of Kentucky State
Police within ten (10) days of occurrence of the accident upon forms provided
by the department.
All accident reports filed with the Department of Kentucky State Police in
compliance with subsection (4) above shall not be considered open records
under KRS 61.872 to 61.884 and shall remain confidential except that the
department may disclose the identity of a person involved in an accident when
his or her identity is not otherwise known or when he or she denies his or her
presence at an accident. Except as provided in subsection (9) of this section,
all other accident reports required by this section, and the information
contained in the reports, shall be confidential and exempt from public
disclosure except when produced pursuant to a properly executed subpoena or
court order, or except pursuant to subsection (8) of this section. These reports
shall be made available only to the parties to the accident, the parents or
guardians of a minor who is party to the accident, and insurers or their written
designee for insurance business purposes of any party who is the subject of
the report, or to the attorneys of the parties.
Except as provided for in this subsection, the department shall not release
accident reports for a commercial purpose. The department may, as a matter of
public safety, contract with an outside entity and release vehicle damage data
extracted from accident reports to such an entity if the data is used solely for
the purpose of providing the public a means of determining a vehicle's accident
history. The department may further contract with a third party to provide
electronic access to reports for persons and entities who are entitled to such
reports under subsections (5) and (9) of this section.
(7) The department shall promulgate administrative regulations in accordance with
KRS Chapter 13A to set out a fee schedule for accident reports made available
pursuant to subsections (5), (8), and (9) of this section. These fees shall be in
addition to those charged to the public for records produced under KRS
Chapter 61.
(8) The report shall be made available to a news-gathering organization, solely for
the purpose of publishing or broadcasting the news. The news-gathering
organization shall not use or distribute the report, or knowingly allow its use or
distribution, for a commercial purpose other than the news-gathering
organization's publication or broadcasting of the information in the report. A
newspaper, periodical, or radio or television station shall not be held to have
used or knowingly allowed the use of the report for a commercial purpose
merely because of its publication or broadcast.
(9) The report shall be made available without subpoena to any party to litigation
who files with the department a request for the report and includes a copy of
the first page of a District or Circuit Court clerk-stamped complaint naming all
parties.
(10) The motor vehicle insurers of any train engineer or other train crew member
involved in an accident on a railroad while functioning in their professional
capacity shall be prohibited from obtaining a copy of any accident report filed
on the accident under this section without written consent from the individual
the company insures. Insurance companies issuing motor vehicle policies in
the Commonwealth shall be prohibited from raising a policyholder's rates solely
because the policyholder, in his or her professional capacity, is a train engineer
or other train crew member involved in an accident on a railroad.
Effective:July 15, 2008
History: Amended 2008 Ky. Acts ch. 160, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2008. -Amended 2007 Ky. Acts ch. 85, sec. 211, effective June 26, 2007. -- Amended
2000 Ky. Acts ch. 497, sec. 2, effective July 14, 2000. -- Amended 1994 Ky.
Acts ch. 478, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1994. -- Amended 1990 Ky. Acts ch. 94,
sec. 1, effective July 13, 1990. -- Amended 1976 Ky. Acts ch. 194, sec. 1,
effective January 1, 1977. -- Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 335, sec. 1.
Legislative Research Commission Note (7/15/2008). The numbering of the
subsections in this section has been altered by the Reviser of Statutes from the
numbering in 2008 Ky. Acts ch. 160, sec. 1, under the authority of KRS 7.136.
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