Patent ID: 8527149

Claim:
A passenger protection device comprising: a first impact detection unit disposed in each of a right vehicle side face and a left vehicle side face of a vehicle to detect an impact of an object on at least one of the right vehicle side face and the left vehicle side face; a unitary first side collision judgment unit that receives information from both of the first impact detection units and determines whether the object has collided with the right vehicle side face and determines whether the object has collided with the left vehicle side face, based on the impact detected by the first impact detection units; a second impact detection unit disposed in a position different from a position of the first impact detection units to detect an impact of the object on at least one of the right vehicle side face and the left vehicle side face; a second side collision judgment unit that determines whether the object has collided with one of the right vehicle side face and the left vehicle side face, based on the impact detected by the second impact detection unit; a behavior judgment unit that determines whether a behavior of the vehicle is in an unstable state, based on a control start signal received from a vehicle control device when the vehicle control device starts performing a vehicle stability control process to stabilize an operation of the vehicle; and a passenger protection unit that protects a passenger in the vehicle, wherein the passenger protection unit is initiated in the following cases: a first case in which the first side collision judgment unit determines that the object has collided with the right vehicle side face or determines that the object has collided with the left vehicle side face and the second side collision judgment unit determines that the object has collided with one of the right vehicle side face and the left vehicle side face, and a second case in which the first side collision judgment unit determines that the object has collided with the right vehicle side face or determines that the object has collided with the left vehicle side face and the behavior judgment unit determines that the behavior of the vehicle is in an unstable state.