Patent ID: 7066487

Claim:
An airbag for minimizing a risk of injury to a vehicle occupant, comprising: an inflatable bag having a primary chamber and a secondary chamber adjacent to said primary chamber; said primary chamber inflating before said secondary chamber and applying a generally downward force to a lower-body portion of the vehicle occupant in order to allocate a substantial portion of an initial impact force to said lower-body portion and to position the vehicle occupant for minimizing a risk of injury to the vehicle occupant; said inflatable bag deployed sequentially in a generally linearly upward direction from said primary chamber to said secondary chamber; said primary chamber comprising an upper sub-chamber and a lower sub-chamber; said lower sub-chamber extending substantially across a width and a depth of the improved airbag and allocating said substantial portion of said initial impact force to said lower-body portion of the vehicle occupant; said upper sub-chamber sized substantially smaller than said lower sub-chamber along said depth of the improved airbag; said upper sub-chamber absorbing and re-directing said initial impact force generally downward and providing immediate protection for an upper-body region of the vehicle occupant; said upper sub-chamber is sized substantially smaller than said lower sub-chamber along said width of the improved airbag.