"Purpose and Scope The purpose and scope of this SAE Recommended Practice is to provide a bias for classification of the extent of vehicle damage caused by accidents on the highway. It is necessary to classify accident damage in detail so that statistical studies of accident characteristics@ from one or many data bands@ may start by segregating the accident damage into rather narrow limits to assure that the accidents under study are of essentially the same type. 1.2 This classification system was established for use primarily by professional teams investigating accidents in depth@ with the expectation that police reports will continue to use the National Safety Council TAD Manual. Provision is made for damage classification on cards used in conventional computer system data storage files. Specific columns on the computer card are used for specific purposes; thus@ use of the same classification codes in different columns causes no confusion. 1 K.A.Stonex@ J.W.Garrett@ C.S.Michalski@ and A.W. Siegel@ ""Collision Damage Severity Scale@"" Paper 700136 presented at SAE Automotive Engineering Congress@ Detroit@ January 1970. 2 Technical Bulletin No.1@ TAD Project. National Safety Council@ 1968."