Request By:
Mr. Larry J. Crigler
Boone County Attorney
P.O. Box 114
Burlington, Kentucky 41005
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General concerning the confidentiality of accident reports made by police officers. You are concerned with one particular report of a fatal one-car accident where the driver was alone and a blood alcohol test was conducted by the Toxicology Laboratory of the Department for Human Resources in Frankfort and sent back to the County Police. An insurance company has requested a copy of the report including the results of the blood alcohol test.
There is no provision in the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, exempting such a report. We do not believe that the deceased driver has any right of privacy in the report. As far as the Open Records Law itself is concerned, any member of the public would have a right to respect the report.
KRS 189.635 provides for accident reports to be made by law enforcement officers and by persons involved in accidents. This statute makes confidential only a report made by a person operating a vehicle involved in an accident. Accident reports made by police officers are not made confidential.
We need not discuss the right of the insurance company to inspect the report because of its pecuniary interest in the death of the driver since it is our opinion that any member of the public may inspect the report.