After a truck crash in North Carolina: reporting, drug tests and your record

The short version

Stop. In NC, leaving a crash where someone is hurt is a felony, and a first hit-and-run conviction takes your CDL for a year, or three years if you were hauling placarded hazmat. [1][2]

Call the police right away if anyone is hurt or the damage looks like $1,000 or more. That is NC's line for a reportable crash. [3][4]

Turn on your flashers at once and set out warning devices within 10 minutes. [7]

Expect a drug and alcohol test if someone died, or if you get a ticket and someone was treated away from the scene or a vehicle was towed. Don't drink for 8 hours after the crash unless you've already been tested. [13][14]

A crash counts on your company's safety record whoever was at fault. Some crash types can be reviewed as not preventable through DataQs, and you need the police report to ask. [22]

What NC law says you must do at the scene

Under G.S. 20-166, a driver who knows or should know about a crash must stop right away. What comes next depends on how bad it is. [1]

If anyone is hurt or killed, stay with your truck until an officer finishes or lets you go. You may leave only to call police, get medical help or get out of real danger, and you must come back. Willfully leaving is a Class H felony, or Class F if the injury is serious or someone dies. [1]

Give your name, address, driver's license number and plate number to the people involved. Give reasonable help to anyone hurt, including calling for medical care when it's clearly needed or someone asks. [1]

In a property-damage-only crash you must stop. You must stay until an officer is done only if the crash is reportable, meaning $1,000 or more in damage. [1][3]

Hit an unattended vehicle and you can't find the owner? Tell the nearest officer, or leave a note in plain sight and report to the owner within 48 hours. Damage to an NCDOT guardrail or a pole you can't report at the scene goes to the nearest officer or to NCDMV by certified mail within 5 days. [1][4]

If nobody is hurt and every vehicle can still be driven safely, NC says to move them out of the travel lanes. Our breakdown guide covers that rule. Anyone who gives first aid at a crash is protected from civil liability unless their conduct is wanton or intentional. [1]

Calling police and protecting the scene

After a reportable crash, the driver must notify police right away by the quickest means. Inside a town, that's the town police. Outside one, it's the State Highway Patrol or the county sheriff. [4]

The officer investigates and writes the report within 24 hours. NCDMV can also ask you for proof of insurance after a reportable crash. [4]

Federal rules say to turn on your hazard flashers as soon as you stop on the road or shoulder, and to keep them on until your warning devices are out. [7]

Place the devices within 10 minutes. On a two-way road, one goes about 10 feet behind on the traffic side, one about 100 feet behind and one about 100 feet ahead. [7]

On a divided or one-way highway, put them about 100 and 200 feet back toward approaching traffic, plus one within 10 feet of the rear. Within 500 feet of a curve, hill crest or other obstruction, put a device on that side 100 to 500 feet from the truck. [7]

If fuel or another flammable liquid is leaking, don't use flame-producing flares except at a safe distance. [7]

NC "reportable" vs federal "accident"

NC and the federal rules measure crashes differently, and the difference decides what paperwork and testing follow. [3][10]

NC counts a crash as reportable if anyone is hurt or killed, or total property damage is $1,000 or more. [3]

Federal rules don't use dollars. A crash with a commercial vehicle is an "accident" if someone dies, someone is treated for an injury away from the scene, or a vehicle has disabling damage and is towed. [10]

So a $3,000 sideswipe where both trucks drive away is reportable to NC police but isn't a federal accident. Crashes that only involve getting on or off a parked vehicle, or loading and unloading, aren't federal accidents either. [3][10]

Carriers must keep an accident register for 3 years for every federal accident. It lists the date, place, driver, injuries, deaths and any hazmat released, plus copies of reports required by the state or insurers. [11]

When a rule puts a duty on the driver, the carrier must make the driver follow it. An owner-operator with their own authority is both, so the duties fall on them. [12]

Post-accident drug and alcohol tests

After a fatal crash, every surviving CDL driver who was on duty in a commercial vehicle must be tested for alcohol and drugs, ticket or not. [13]

If someone was treated away from the scene, or a vehicle was towed, testing is required only if the truck driver gets a ticket for a moving violation from the crash. The ticket window is 8 hours for alcohol and 32 hours for drugs. [13]

The alcohol test should happen within 2 hours. If it doesn't, the employer must record why, and it stops trying at 8 hours. The drug test cutoff is 32 hours. [13]

Stay reachable for testing. Leaving without a good reason can be treated as a refusal, though you never have to delay medical care. A refusal keeps you off safety-sensitive work. [13][15]

A driver who must take the alcohol test may not drink for 8 hours after the crash, or until tested if that comes first. [14]

Tests done by police can count if they meet the rules and the employer gets the results. Owner-operators are their own employer under these rules, so the testing duties are theirs too. [13][16]

A positive drug test goes to the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse within 2 business days. An alcohol result of 0.04 or more, or a refusal, must be reported by the third business day. [16]

If you're hauling hazmat

The person holding the hazmat must call the National Response Center at 800-424-8802 as soon as practical, and no later than 12 hours, if the hazmat kills or hospitalizes anyone. [18]

The same call is required if the public is evacuated for an hour or more, or a major road or facility is closed for an hour or more because of the hazmat. [18]

A written report on DOT Form 5800.1 is due within 30 days after any of those events, after any unintentional release, and after structural damage to a spec cargo tank of 1,000 gallons or more even with no release. Keep a copy for 2 years. [19]

A hit-and-run conviction while hauling placarded hazmat triples the CDL disqualification to 3 years. Our hazmat and fuel hauling guides cover NC's spill reporting rules. [2]

Getting the crash report

NC's police crash report is form DMV-349. The officer marks a box when a vehicle is a commercial vehicle, which includes trucks of 10,001 pounds or more and placarded hazmat loads. [25]

People involved in a crash can't order the report online. NCDMV mails or hands over a redacted copy when you file form TR-67A, citing federal privacy law. [26]

The fee is $6.50 and mail requests take about 10 business days. You can also go in person to NCDMV in Raleigh at 4121 New Bern Ave. or the Huntersville license plate agency, as of October 2026. [5][26][27]

Carriers need the report for the accident register and for any preventability review. Insurers and lawyers with a legal reason can get unredacted copies. [11][22][26]

How the crash hits your safety record

Crashes count in FMCSA's crash measure for 2 years whoever caused them, and show up on a driver's Pre-Employment Screening Program record for 5 years. [20]

Since Dec. 1, 2024, FMCSA's Crash Preventability Determination Program covers 21 crash types. They include being rear-ended, hit while legally stopped or parked, hit by a wrong-way or drunk driver, and any crash where video shows what happened. [22]

You ask through DataQs. You must send the police report, and video or photos help. Documents FMCSA asks for must arrive within 14 days, or the crash is marked undecided. [22]

A not-preventable crash stays listed on the public site but drops out of the crash score, and the finding is noted on the driver's PSP record. It doesn't assign legal fault. [22]

Under an April 2026 FMCSA notice, states that take federal safety grants must review crash disputes filed in DataQs within 5 years of the crash. For a fatal crash, FMCSA needs proper post-accident test results, or the written reason none were done, before it will call the crash not preventable. [22][23]

Insurance, fault and what to do next

This is general information, not legal advice. NC is one of the few places that still uses contributory negligence, so a person found even slightly at fault generally can't recover damages, according to the UNC School of Government. [28]

That rule has exceptions, such as gross negligence and "last clear chance". Most injury and property claims in NC generally have a three-year time limit under G.S. 1-52, but talk to a lawyer about your case. [28][29]

Federal minimum liability insurance for interstate for-hire carriers is $750,000 for general freight, $1 million for oil and most hazmat, and $5 million for the most dangerous loads. [30]

Our tip: call your safety department or insurer from the scene. No federal rule sets a deadline for that call, but the 2-, 8- and 32-hour testing clocks start at the crash. [13]

For scale, NC had 284,546 reportable crashes in 2024 and 1,732 people died. Crashes involving a tractor-semitrailer numbered 4,800, with 73 fatal. [33]