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This entry was published on 2014-09-22
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SECTION 605
Report required upon accident
Vehicle & Traffic (VAT) CHAPTER 71, TITLE 6, ARTICLE 22
§ 605. Report required upon accident. (a) 1. Every person operating a
motor vehicle, except a police officer (as defined in subdivision
thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law), a correction
officer, or a firefighter, operating a police department, a correction
department, or fire department vehicle respectively while on duty, if a
report has been filed by the owner of such vehicle, which is in any
manner involved in an accident, anywhere within the boundaries of this
state, in which any person is killed or injured, or in which damage to
the property of any one person, including himself, in excess of one
thousand dollars is sustained, shall within ten days after such
accident, report the matter in writing to the commissioner. If such
operator or chauffeur be physically incapable of making such report and
there be another participant in the accident not incapacitated, such
participant shall make such report within ten days after such accident.
If the operator or chauffeur involved in such accident be unable to make
such report, the owner of the motor vehicle involved in such accident,
if such owner be not involved in such accident or incapacitated, shall
within ten days after he learns of the fact of such accident report the
matter to the commissioner together with such information as may have
come to his knowledge relating to such accident. Every such operator or
chauffeur of a motor vehicle, or participant in any such accident, or
owner of the motor vehicle involved in any such accident, shall make
such other and additional reports as the commissioner shall require.

2. Failure to report an accident as herein provided or failure to give
correctly the information required of him by the commissioner in
connection with such report shall be a misdemeanor and shall constitute
a ground for suspension or revocation of the operator's (or chauffeur's)
license or all certificates of registration for any motor vehicle, or of
both, of the person failing to make such report as herein required. In
addition, the commissioner may temporarily suspend the driver's license
or permit or certificate of registration of the motor vehicle involved
in the accident, or of both, of the person failing to report an accident
within the period prescribed in paragraph one of this subdivision, until
such report has been filed. However, no suspension or a revocation shall
be made of a license or certificate of registration of any police
officer, correction officer, or firefighter involved in an accident
while on duty for failure to report such accident within ten days
thereof if a report has been filed by the owner of such vehicle.

3. In the case of a non-resident the failure to report an accident as
herein provided shall constitute ground for suspension or revocation of
his privileges of operating a motor vehicle in this state and of the
operation within this state of any motor vehicle owned by him.

4. When a report required by this section is made by an owner or an
operator of a fire vehicle, as defined by section one hundred fifteen-a
of this chapter, or a police vehicle, as defined by section one hundred
thirty-two-a of this chapter, when such accident occurred during the
operation of such vehicle in response to an emergency where the operator
was responding to a call to duty as a paid or volunteer member of any
fire department, or in the case of a police vehicle, when such accident
occurred during emergency operation, as defined by section one hundred
fourteen-b of this chapter, the commissioner shall omit the event
described in such report from the operator's external license abstract.
Provided, however, the commissioner shall not omit the event described
in such report from the operator's external license abstract if as a
result of such event such operator has either (i) been charged with a
violation of this chapter or of the penal law, unless the commissioner
receives evidence that such charge has been dismissed, or that the
action has otherwise been terminated in favor of the accused pursuant to
section 160.50 of the criminal procedure law, or that the charge has
otherwise been adjudicated in an administrative or other proceeding in
favor of the defendant operator or (ii) been found to have been grossly
negligent by a final order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

(b) Every person operating a bicycle which is in any manner involved
in an accident on a public highway in this state in which any person is
killed, other than the operator, or suffers serious physical injury as
defined pursuant to subdivision ten of section 10.00 of the penal law,
shall within ten days after such operator learns of the fact of such
death or serious physical injury, report the matter in writing to the
commissioner. If such operator is physically incapable of making such
report within ten days, he or she shall make the report immediately upon
recovery from the physical incapacity. If such operator is an
unemancipated minor who is incapable of making such report for any
reason, the parent or guardian of such operator shall make such report
within ten days after learning of the fact of such accident. Every such
operator of a bicycle, or parent or guardian of such unemancipated minor
operator, shall make such other and additional reports as the
commissioner shall require.

(c) The report required by this section shall be made in such form and
number as the commissioner may prescribe. Such report shall include
information on the width and length of trucks, tractors, trailers and
semitrailers, which are in excess of ninety-five inches in width or
thirty-four feet in length and which are involved in such accidents,
whether such accident took place in a work area and whether it was being
operated with an overweight or over dimension permit. Such report shall
distinctly indicate and include information as to whether the inflatable
restraint system inflated and deployed.