Patent ID: 7708307

Claim:
A method for protecting an occupant seated on a seat of a vehicle in a side collision of the vehicle, comprising: retaining a lumbar region of the occupant in a section that corresponds to a pelvis rearward of an acetabulum in the skeletal structure of the occupant seated on the seat, wherein the retaining of the lumbar region includes retaining the lumbar region of the occupant using an impact absorbing member, wherein the impact absorbing member is arranged to be located, when activated, diagonally behind the lumbar region of the occupant and near the vehicle exterior, and to overlap the lumbar region of the occupant as viewed in a traveling direction and a widthwise direction of the vehicle, wherein, when activated, the impact absorbing member includes an inclined surface that contacts the lumbar region of the occupant in a state inclined to protrude further into the inside of the vehicle as it approaches a rear end with respect to a traveling direction of the vehicle, such that the inclined surface is substantially parallel with an ilium of the occupant, and wherein, when activated, the impact absorbing member covers a portion of the lumbar region of the occupant, the portion being rearward of the greater trochanter corresponding to the ilium and outside of the rear end of the posterior-superior iliac spine of the ilium.