You are required to notify DMV by filing a Report of Traffic Accident Occuring in California (SR-1) form if:
- You change your insurance company.
- You were involved in a collision with an injury. ✓
- Your vehicle fails a smog test.
Answer: B. You were involved in a collision with an injury.
You must file the SR-1 form when you are involved in a collision in which someone was injured or killed.
Why this is the answer
The handbook says each driver must send DMV a Report of Traffic Accident Occurring in California when a collision causes more than $1,000 in property damage or when anyone is injured or killed, even if the injuries are minor. It also says you file whether or not you caused the collision, and even if it happened on private property. Because the injury collision is one of the listed triggers, the SR-1 requirement applies.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. You change your insurance company. — The handbook does not list changing insurance companies as a reason to file the SR-1 collision report; it discusses having and showing proof of insurance, not reporting a switch to DMV.
- C. Your vehicle fails a smog test. — A failed smog test is not among the collision-reporting triggers in the handbook, which are injury or death and more than $1,000 in property damage.
Remember it
Think crash report, not paperwork changes: injury or major property damage is what triggers the SR-1.