With the publication of the AIS revision of 2015 by the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine a classification of injury severity is available that reflects the current status in the care of road accident victims and their probability of survival. The aim of this study is to forecast the number of injured road users of MAIS 2+ and MAIS 3+ in Germany. In addition, the influence of the use of several AIS revisions on injury severity distributions is shown. The work bases on data from the German In-Depth Accident Study.

The results reveal a decreased severity of individual injuries in specific body regions. On the other hand, some individual injuries were shifted to higher AIS values in the 2015 AIS code revision. The proportion of MAIS 3+ injured persons in the German study increased by 4%. For cyclists, the increase is even at 6%.

The findings of this study are very important, as many safety systems, regulations, and consumer assessments focus on such groups, especially on MAIS 3+. The application of the AIS Revision 2015 will lead to a better understanding of the severity of road accidents and poses a cornerstone for the comparability of different AIS codes.