This paper discusses the development of the police collision report description, Traffic Accident Data (TAD), Vehicle Deformation Index (VDI) and Collision Deformation Classification (CDC) damage scales, and evaluates the correlation between them. Numerous descriptors are utilized in the available damage scales and include verbal, photographic, and diagram descriptions. Accident rates are correlated to the damage severity and compared to the CDC levels. Efficacy of using the current CDC damage scale is evaluated by comparing it with more sensitive damage ratings.
Abstract