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Subcommittee raises accident-report damage threshold to $3,000 in amended bill
Summary
A bill to raise the vehicle-damage threshold for mandatory written crash reports to the Department of Motor Vehicles was amended in committee from $5,000 to $3,000 and reported unanimously, 5-0. Sponsor Delegate Maldonado said the increase aligns the reporting threshold with modern repair costs and could save law-enforcement personnel hours.
Delegate Maldonado presented a bill to increase the dollar threshold at which law enforcement is required to forward written motor-vehicle-crash reports to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The bill would replace the current $1,500 threshold with a higher amount; the sponsor described negotiations that produced a line amendment setting the threshold at $3,000 after an initial proposal of $5,000.
"The amount of 1500 has been in place since 2009," Delegate Maldonado said, describing the change as an effort to align statute with modern vehicle-repair costs. He said Prince William County — which provided the bill — records thousands of crash reports annually, many of which involve minor damage that still requires lengthy reporting. Kevin Huguard, assistant chief for the Prince William County Police Department, testified online in support and said the change would free officers to respond to higher-priority calls without reducing their responsibility to ensure injuries are addressed.
The committee adopted the line amendment (raising the threshold to $3,000) and reported the bill as amended on a 5-0 recorded vote. The sponsor and witnesses emphasized officers would still respond to crashes and that reports would continue when injuries, enforcement actions or special circumstances were present. The bill will be heard in the full committee the following morning.
