A retrospective analysis was carried out on 89 patients who had died of blunt injuries. Death occurring more than 7 days after injury was caused by failure of a remote organ, associated with sepsis in 88 per cent of the cases. The only distinctive feature of the group dying from sepsis was a high average Hospital Trauma Index (HTI) for ‘limb injury’. Inadequate immobilization of major fractures in the multiply injured patient may be a contributory factor to late deaths from sepsis.