N.Y. Vehicle & Traffic Law § 603-a: Accidents; police authorities to investigate

§ 603-a. Accidents; police authorities to investigate. 1. In addition

to the requirements of section six hundred three of this article,

whenever a motor vehicle, bicycle with electric assist, or electric

scooter accident results in serious physical injury or death to a

person, and such accident either is discovered by a police officer, or

reported to a police officer within five days after such accident

occurred, the police shall conduct an investigation of such accident.

(a) Such investigation shall be conducted for the purposes of making a

determination of the following: the facts and circumstances of the

accident; the type or types of vehicles involved, including passenger

motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles, limited use

motorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, electric scooters, bicycles with

electric assist, and/or bicycles; whether pedestrians were involved; the

contributing factor or factors; whether it can be determined if a

violation or violations of this chapter occurred, and if so, the

specific provisions of this chapter which were violated and by whom;

and, the cause of such accident, where such cause can be determined.

(b) When present at the scene of such accident, the investigating

officer shall also request that all operators of motor vehicles involved

in such accident submit to field testing as defined in section eleven

hundred ninety-four of this chapter provided there are reasonable

grounds to believe such motor vehicle operator committed a serious

traffic violation in the same accident. The results of such field

testing or refusal of such testing shall be included in the police

investigation report. For the purposes of this section, "serious traffic

violation" shall mean operating a motor vehicle in violation of any of

the following provisions of this chapter: articles twenty-three,

twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine and

thirty and sections five hundred eleven, six hundred and twelve hundred

twelve.

(c) The police shall forward a copy of the investigation report to the

commissioner within five business days of the completion of such report.

2. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the

following meanings:

(a) "commercial motor vehicle" shall have the same meaning as such

term is defined in either subdivision four of section five hundred one-a

or subdivision one of section five hundred nine-p of this chapter; and

(b) "serious physical injury" shall have the same meaning as such term

is defined in section 10.00 of the penal law.