A method is described for operating a vehicle, including the following steps: ascertaining a collision probability for the vehicle, ascertaining an effectiveness parameter assigned to a restraint system of the vehicle, which is a measure of how effectively the restraint system may protect a vehicle occupant in the event of a collision assigned to the collision probability, and carrying out at least one injury-mitigating measure depending on the ascertained effectiveness parameter in order to mitigate an occupant injury during a collision. Also described are a corresponding device and a computer program.

A drive arrangement (1) for driving a vehicle safety device (18) incorporates an input (2) which is connected to an output (9) of an electronic control unit (5). The output (9) of the electronic control unit (5) is an output which is operable to provide a firing signal to activate a pyrotechnic squib in a safety device, such as an airbag module. The drive arrangement (1) incorporates first and second analyzers (14, 15) which perform first and second algorithms on a firing signal provided by the electronic control unit (5) to determine that the firing signal would have activated a pyrotechnic squib. The drive arrangement (1) provides an output signal to a safety device (18) if both the first and second analyzers (14, 15) determine that the firing signal would have activated the pyrotechnic squib.

A crash detection system includes first and second sensors and a processor. The processor receives first sensor data output by the first sensor, determines whether the first sensor data indicates a first class or a second class, outputs an enable signal to the second sensor if the first sensor data indicates the second class, receives second sensor data output by the second sensor after the enable signal is output, determines whether the second sensor data indicates a high acceleration value, determines whether the first sensor data indicates the first class within a predetermined amount of time after the second sensor data is determined to indicate the high acceleration value, and outputs a signal indicating a crash has occurred in response to determining that the first sensor data indicates the first class within the predetermined amount of time after the second sensor data is determined to indicate the high acceleration value.