Nothing on the complaint form asks whether anyone called for help. These mentions are volunteered, which makes them a reasonable proxy for severity.
| Mentioned in the text | Complaints | Involved a crash |
|---|---|---|
| Police | 23,152 | 60.1% |
| Fire brigade | 6,106 | |
| Hospital | 3,422 | |
| A 911 call | 1,969 | |
| All complaints | 1,109,342 | 5.8% |
Sixty per cent of the police mentions involve a collision, against 5.8% across the record. That is the single sharpest filter for severity available in the text.
Why the police figure is the useful one
A police report exists independently of the complaint. It means a third party attended, wrote something down, and that record can be produced later.
That matters because complaints describing a fatality arrive 467 days after the incident — long after memory has softened. A complaint referencing a police report is anchored to a document.
It also explains why these reports are the ones that trigger investigations. An agency looking at a pattern needs incidents it can verify, and "the police attended" is verifiable in a way that "the car surged" is not.
The fire brigade number sits apart
6,106 complaints mention the fire brigade, and almost none of them involve a collision. They are the vehicle fires that start without any crash — 95% of all fire reports — where the emergency call is about the car itself rather than an accident.
That is a different failure mode entirely, and it is why fire recalls carry instructions that no other recall does, including parking away from buildings.
What it means for reading a model's history
When you look up complaints for a car you are considering, the count is the least informative number on the page. A model with 400 complaints about interior trim is in better shape than one with 40 that mention an ambulance.
There is no filter for this on any public interface, which is a genuine gap. The workaround is to read rather than count: scan the text of the most recent complaints for the model year and note whether the language is about annoyance or about consequences.
And check the open recalls on the specific VIN. A defect severe enough to generate this category of complaint is also the kind most likely to end in a recall — which means a free repair, provided somebody claims it.
Frequently asked questions
How many vehicle complaints involve emergency services?
23,152 mention the police, 6,106 the fire brigade, 3,422 a hospital and 1,969 a 911 call. None of this is asked for on the form — owners volunteer it, which makes it a reasonable proxy for how serious the incident was.
Why do complaints mentioning police matter more?
Because 60.1% of them involve a collision, against 5.8% across all complaints, and because a police report exists independently. Regulators open investigations on patterns they can verify, and an attended incident is verifiable in a way a description is not.
Why do fire brigade mentions not involve crashes?
Because vehicle fires overwhelmingly start without a collision — 95% of reported fires involve no impact at all. The emergency call is about the car burning, often while parked, rather than about an accident.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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