A QUANTITATIVE SCALE OF IMPACT INJURY

VARIOUS ADMINISTRATIVE AND RESEARCH CLASSIFICATIONS OF INJURY ARE BRIEFLY DISCUSSED TO ILLUSTRATE THE DIVERSITY OF METHODS IN ASSESSING BODILY INJURY. THESE CLASSIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF SPECIFIC DATA AND VARY FROM THREE GENERAL CATEGORIES (NO INJURY, NON-FATAL, FATAL) TO AN EXPANSION OF THESE CATEGORIES INTO TEN MORE SPECIFIC CLASSES. NUMERICAL WEIGHTING TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO INJURY CATEGORIES ARE ALSO MENTIONED. SEVENTY-FIVE ACIR MEDICAL REPORTS FROM HIGHLY SEVERE ACCIDENT CASES WERE QUANTITATIVELY RANKED FOR TYPE AND MULTIPLICITY OF INJURY. SIMILARLY RELATED INJURY GROUPS WERE THEN GIVEN A WEIGHTED NUMERICAL VALUE. THESE INJURIES WERE FURTHER EXAMINED ACCORDING TO SPECIFIC CRITERIA RESULTING IN A "SCALE OF INJUREDNESS" CONSISTING OF EIGHT CLASSES. THE INJURY SCORE, OR SEVERITY, OF AN INDIVIDUAL COULD THEN BE FOUND BY SUMMING THE NUMERICAL VALUES OF EACH SPECIFIC INJURY. THIS "SCALE OF INJUREDNESS" WASH THEN COMPARED TO THE EXISTING ACIR SCALE FOR 170 INJURED SUBJECTS. THUS, THIS RELATIVELY OBJECTIVE METHOD OF GIVING A NUMERICAL VALUE TO INJURY MEANS THAT INJURY SCORES OF A NUMBER OF PEOPLE CAN BE TREATED STATISTICALLY.