Citation

Hunt RC, Whitley TW. Proc. Assoc. Adv. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1993; 37: 421-422.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Vehicle damage has been used as an indicator of injury severity, and specific damage to areas such as steering wheel, dash and windshield may correlate with specific injuries. Despite its importance a recent study has shown that emergency medical service (EMS) run reports do not have adequate vehicle damage documentation when compared with vehicle photographs. A subsequent multicenter feasibility trial demonstrated that emergency medical technicians (EMTs) can take photographs quickly in adverse weather and different lighting conditions and that the area and severity of vehicle damage can be determined from instant photographs better than from EMS run reports. The implementation and one year experience with a systematic method of EMTs' photographing vehicle damage at the crash scene and bringing the images with the patient to the emergency department (ED) is described.