N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 603-a

§ 603-a. Accidents; police authorities to investigate. * 1. In\naddition to the requirements of section six hundred three of this\narticle, whenever a motor vehicle accident results in serious physical\ninjury or death to a person, and such accident either is discovered by a\npolice officer, or reported to a police officer within five days after\nsuch accident occurred, the police shall conduct an investigation of\nsuch accident. Such investigation shall be conducted for the purposes of\nmaking a determination of the following: the facts and circumstances of\nthe accident; the type or types of vehicles involved, including\npassenger motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles,\nlimited use motorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, and/or bicycles;\nwhether pedestrians were involved; the contributing factor or factors;\nwhether it can be determined if a violation or violations of this\nchapter occurred, and if so, the specific provisions of this chapter\nwhich were violated and by whom; and, the cause of such accident, where\nsuch cause can be determined. The police shall forward a copy of the\ninvestigation report to the commissioner within five business days of\nthe completion of such report.\n * NB Effective until January 17, 2018\n * 1. In addition to the requirements of section six hundred three of\nthis article, whenever a motor vehicle accident results in serious\nphysical injury or death to a person, and such accident either is\ndiscovered by a police officer, or reported to a police officer within\nfive days after such accident occurred, the police shall conduct an\ninvestigation of such accident.\n (a) Such investigation shall be conducted for the purposes of making a\ndetermination of the following: the facts and circumstances of the\naccident; the type or types of vehicles involved, including passenger\nmotor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, motorcycles, limited use\nmotorcycles, off-highway motorcycles, and/or bicycles; whether\npedestrians were involved; the contributing factor or factors; whether\nit can be determined if a violation or violations of this chapter\noccurred, and if so, the specific provisions of this chapter which were\nviolated and by whom; and, the cause of such accident, where such cause\ncan be determined.\n (b) When present at the scene of such accident, the investigating\nofficer shall also request that all operators of motor vehicles involved\nin such accident submit to a field sobriety test as defined in section\neleven hundred ninety-four of this chapter provided there are reasonable\ngrounds to believe such motor vehicle operator committed a serious\ntraffic violation in the same accident. Upon refusal to submit to such\ntesting, such person shall be subject to the provisions of section\neleven hundred ninety-four of this chapter. The results of such field\nsobriety and chemical tests or refusals of such tests shall be included\nin the police investigation report. For the purposes of this section,\n"serious traffic violation" shall mean operating a motor vehicle in\nviolation of any of the following provisions of this chapter: articles\ntwenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight,\ntwenty-nine and thirty and sections five hundred eleven, six hundred and\ntwelve hundred twelve.\n (c) The police shall forward a copy of the investigation report to the\ncommissioner within five business days of the completion of such report.\n * NB Effective January 17, 2018\n 2. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the\nfollowing meanings:\n (a) "commercial motor vehicle" shall have the same meaning as such\nterm is defined in either subdivision four of section five hundred one-a\nor subdivision one of section five hundred nine-p of this chapter; and\n (b) "serious physical injury" shall have the same meaning as such term\nis defined in section 10.00 of the penal law.\n