The publication of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) in 1971 (1)* was an important event in the long history of man's attempts to develop scientifically acceptable criteria for identifying the severity of injuries. Until then, no single comprehensive system for rating tissue damage existed that was acceptable to both physicians and engineers, as well as to other researchers involved in automotive crash investigation. A number of systems (2-10) had been developed over the years for specific purposes or by specific groups, but none encompassed the overall needs of in-depth automotive crash investigation. The development of the AIS was a milestone in this field, and has been adopted by the multidisciplinary accident investigation (MDAI) teams established by the U.S. Department of Transportation and by crash investigators worldwide.