So a few months ago there was a huge car accident on the Interstate in my area. There were some puzzling aspects of the incident, I’ve always wondered exactly what happened that day with that driver (he died in the accident).
Can regular (non law-enforcement) folks obtain and read accident reports? Who would I contact to find the report?
Depends on the state but most reports like that pubilc. I was in a wreck here in NC and I got my report although it was only 1 page since it was a small wreck. - just me and 1 other car.
I would start with the local police for the city where it happened or maybe the state police for your state if they handled the wreck.
two thoughts (not facts)
state privacy laws may result in you receiving a full report that has been heavily redacted. i would however expect you to be able to learn of the details of the crash, seemingly the locus of your interest.
it may be difficult for you to find the report, depending on how the crash is indexed. there are numerous car crashes in a given area every day, so unless you have a party name or a report number the indexing system may not be able to find what you’re looking for. they’re not going to let you into the file cabinet room and say “ok, here are all the car crash reports from June 2, 2008 - have at em!”