How To Find Out About Recent St. Petersburg Car Accidents

Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers | Car Accident

How To Find Out About Recent St. Petersburg Car Accidents

Florida has one of the largest populations of any state in the country. Since many of those people drive cars, Florida is, unsurprisingly, the site of thousands of car accidents every year.

With that said, if you’re a St. Petersburg resident and motorist, you may be concerned about these accidents and want to gather as much information about them and your risks as possible. Thankfully,  several sources can tell you all you need to know about car accidents in the city.

St. Petersburg Car Accident Statistics

If the only details you are interested in involve recent St. Petersburg accident statistics, those are easily available online. For example, so far in 2023 (as of early December), there have been 13,183 crashes involving 85 fatalities and 8,170 injuries in Pinellas County. Read more about auto accident statistics here.

Car Accident Report

If, on the other hand, you want information about a specific recent car accident, the St. Petersburg Police Department may have you covered.

If you were involved in the accident or if you are representing someone who was involved in the accident, either in terms of legal aid or insurance, you can request a copy of the crash report at any time. 

If you weren’t involved, you can still get a copy, but only once 60 days have passed. That said, there is an exception to that rule: The police will never knowingly provide the report to a third party that intends to use the report for any type of solicitation.

What Is in a Crash Report?

A crash report contains all of the information the police have on the accident, such as:

  • A description of the accident scene, usually with illustrations
  • The names and identifying information of all drivers and passengers involved
  • An opinion by the responding officer regarding the designation of fault
  • The time and location in which the accident occurred

All of the collected information is usually used by insurance companies and lawyers to determine the value of any claims that may arise. It can also be of particular importance whenever an insurance company needs to verify that a hit-and-run accident took place.

News Reports

One more common way to get information about recent car accidents in the city is the local news, which will typically report on fatal or otherwise catastrophic accidents in the city. Some of the common news sources for the area include the following:

  • The Tampa Bay Times
  • ABC Action News
  • WFLA
  • Bay News 9

If you find information about an accident from any of these news sources, you can follow up on public sources. Online articles usually include links to those references, but you can choose to directly contact the news agency and request information about them.

Unfortunately, if a source is private, the news agency will not provide any information about it, and under the agency’s protections under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, there is no way to force the news agency to provide information about their source.

Gathering Information About Recent Car Accidents

Getting access to information about recent car accidents can be useful for several reasons. You may need that information to support a lawsuit or insurance claim, help you with research, or figure out which streets in the city are most dangerous and thus avoid them.

Regardless, there are several sources that you can easily access to get that information. Some may take extra time, and there may be certain costs involved, but the details you seek are out there. If you are still having trouble finding information about recent car crashes, an auto accident lawyer may be able to help.

Contact the Pinellas County Car Accident Law Firm Of Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers for Help

For more information, please contact the Clearwater and St. Petersburg car accident law firm of Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers at the nearest location to schedule a free consultation today.

We serve Pinellas County and its surrounding areas:

Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers – Clearwater
1875 N Belcher Rd. STE 201,
Clearwater, FL 33765
(727) 796-8282

Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers – St. Petersburg
2560 1st Ave S,
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
(727) 349-1728