Patent ID: 7434834

Claim:
An occupant protection system for a vehicle, comprising: an occupant protection device provided in the vehicle; a first acceleration sensor provided in the vehicle for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, to generate a first acceleration signal corresponding to detected acceleration; a rear vehicle recognition means provided at a rear side of the vehicle for recognizing a rear vehicle, to generate a recognition signal corresponding to a recognized condition; and an electronic control unit provided in the vehicle and having a rear crash detecting means for determining a rear crash, wherein the electronic control unit comprises; a first rear crash detection portion for receiving the first acceleration signal from the first acceleration sensor and outputting a first rear crash signal, when the first rear crash detection portion determines that a rear crash has occurred based on the first acceleration signal from the first acceleration sensor, an obstacle detection portion for receiving the recognition signal from the rear vehicle recognition means and outputting a second rear crash signal, when the obstacle detection portion determines that a rear crash has occurred based on the recognition signal from the rear vehicle recognition means, and a rear crash processing means for receiving the first and second rear crash signals and outputting a control signal to the occupant protection device, only when both of the first and second rear crash signals are outputted at the same time to the rear crash processing means, and wherein the rear vehicle recognition means comprises a vehicle distance detecting means for detecting a distance between the vehicle and the rear vehicle and outputting an output signal indicating the detected distance.