How to find details of a car accident?

February 2, 2009 10:53 AM

Outcome of a car accident in San Jose, CA on 880 North near the Alameda, around 10:30am February 1st?

I witnessed a fairly nasty accident (car rolled several times) on the other side of the road while driving south on 880 yesterday, but I am unable to find any references to it in the news.

Hopefully that means that no one was badly injured, but ... how does one find these things out?

posted by tkolar to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

It would have been on the CHP Traffic Incident site right after it happened, and it would have said if there were any injuries, when the ambulance arrived, how many patrol cars responded, what lanes were blocked, etc. Unfortunately after an incident is cleaned up and is "over," it disappears from the site. I wish they had an archive.
posted by zsazsa at 11:17 AM on February 2

Looks like the San Jose Police Department Records Unit is your best bet. It sounds like a serious enough accident that a report would have been filed by now. I'm not sure if they'll just tell you how it turned out over the phone because they do charge $15 for a copy of the record.
posted by Mouse Army at 11:18 AM on February 2

We used to find information like this in newspapers. I didn't see anything on the Mercury News web site, but you might check today's ink-and-paper version.
posted by exphysicist345 at 7:12 PM on February 2

I just checked the local newswire Bay City News (login req.) and found nothing about the accident, which leads me to believe that there was not a fatality. (At least not on scene.) They tend to cover both deaths and major injuries, so that's a good sign.
posted by purpleclover at 9:35 PM on February 3