You are required to notify DMV by filing a Report of Traffic Accident Occuring in California (SR-1) form if:
- You allowed a licensed driver from another state to drive your vehicle.
- You were involved in a collision with more than $1,000 in damages. ✓
- You failed to pay your registration fees.
Answer: B. You were involved in a collision with more than $1,000 in damages.
You must file an SR-1 when you were involved in a collision with more than $1,000 in damages.
Why this is the answer
The handbook says you must report a collision to DMV when it caused more than $1,000 in damage to property, or when anyone was injured or killed. Each driver involved files the SR-1, and it applies whether or not you caused the crash and even on private property. The passages also say law enforcement will not file it for you. That makes the collision-damage threshold the reporting trigger described in the question, not the other situations listed.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. You allowed a licensed driver from another state to drive your vehicle. — Letting a licensed out-of-state driver use your vehicle is not one of the reporting triggers in the handbook passages.
- C. You failed to pay your registration fees. — Failing to pay registration fees is not described in the passages as a reason to file an SR-1.
Remember it
Picture the SR-1 as the driver's own paperwork: if the crash crosses the damage line or hurts someone, you send it, not the officer.