ATLANTA – Selling car crash reports to a private company has saved time and money according to state officials, but some drivers cite concerns over retrieval costs and privacy.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that for more than four years, the Georgia Department of Transportation has been selling crash reports to Kentucky-based company Appriss, which runs Buycrash.com.
Crash reports are resold online for $11 to drivers, insurers and the media. Some drivers say officers never told them they could get the same report from local authorities for less. State law limits costs associated with retrieving crash reports to the price of making a copy of the report.
Some drivers have said that after their crash, they were handed a card with the responding officer’s name that referred them to Buycrash.com.
“The implication was this was a website that was managed and operated or affiliated with the police department,” said Alison Nazarowski, who bought a Buycrash.com report after an accident with a taxicab. “It never, ever, ever crossed my mind [that]a privately run company and the police department were making money off it.”