Published: July 23, 2008 10:02 am      

Jeffersonville to make money from online crash reports

For the first time in 15 years, revenue will be garnered from online accident reports, a press release from the city says.

Earlier this month, Jeffersonville Police Chief Tim Deeringer signed an agreement with Greenwood-based Holt, Sheets and Associates that will provide the police department with $8 of the $12 the company collects when it sells vehicle crash reports on its www.buycrash.com Web site.

Holt, Sheets and Associates has sold Jeffersonville crash reports — which it obtains from a state database — online for more than a decade, but until now the city has never received revenue from these sales, the release says.

Crash reports are still available at the police department — located on the first floor of City Hall at 500 Quartermaster Court — for $5. The department’s Records Division is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“The Indiana State Police have been doing it for years,” Deeringer said in the release. “You can’t go to a state police post and get an accident report because ISP no longer has a records division — it’s all done electronically. We just got on board.”

Deeringer said he hopes more people will access crash reports online, but admits that most of the online users likely will be attorneys, insurance companies and individuals who have difficulty making it to City Hall during business hours.

Deeringer pointed out that the local $5 price for crash reports is established by city ordinance and that the $12 online fee is set by Holt, Sheets and Associates.