A vehicle occupant protection device including: an airbag constructed as an integrated bag body that is deployed in an area including a front side of a head portion of a vehicle occupant, and in an area including both left and right sides of the head portion of the vehicle occupant; and an airbag case that includes a box-shaped case main body provided on a seat rear side of a headrest main body, in which the airbag is housed in a folded state, and whose upper portion opens up during an inflation and deployment of the airbag, and a reaction force plate that is provided in a lower portion side of the case main body, and is formed by a component having greater rigidity than the case main body, and that supports the airbag from the seat rear side during the inflation and deployment of the airbag.

An arrangement in passenger vehicles, that diverts the impact energy in lateral or side impacts away from the passengers to the remaining mass of the vehicle thereby protecting the passengers, and in the same arrangement provides utilitarian access to the vehicle, such utilitarian access making it possible to both install multi-element contoured surround seats for passengers and the driver, and also a safety device for head-on collision protection that obviates the need for conventional seat belts and front impact airbags. An indo-skeletal structural arrangement proposed for the vehicle, provides further benefits by targeting the strength of the vehicle to protect passengers while minimizing other massive elements in the vehicle. Side impact protection for the head and neck are proposed with airbags and aircushions.

A left-right pair of rear tethers is configured such that one-end portions thereof are anchored to a left-right pair of front-rear extension portions, other-end portions thereof are anchored to a seatback or to the vehicle body, and during passenger restraint each of a left-right pair of front-rear extension portions is pulled relatively in a seat diagonally rearward and downward direction such that a coupling portion approaches a femur area of a passenger.

An airbag device includes: an inflator generating gas at a time of a collision of a vehicle; and an airbag to which the gas is supplied, and that inflates and expands from a seat rear side of an upper portion of a vehicle seat toward a seat front side, and slips-through between a ceiling of a vehicle cabin and a head of a passenger seated in the vehicle seat. The airbag has at least one gas supply path that is provided so as to be directed toward the seat front side and whose angle of incidence with respect to the ceiling in a side view seen from a seat transverse direction is set to be an acute angle.

A seat-mounted airbag device is provided with an airbag including front-and-rear chambers and an airbag main body. At a time of collision of a vehicle, gas jetted out from an inflator is supplied to the front-and-rear chambers, which inflate and expand to a front side along left and right sides of the head of a vehicle occupant. In association with the inflation and expansion of the front-and-rear chambers, the airbag main body moves to the front side, passing between the head of the vehicle occupant and a vehicle cabin ceiling. The gas is supplied from the front-and-rear chambers to the airbag main body, which inflates and expands and is disposed at the front side of the vehicle occupant.

A seat-mounted airbag device including an inflator that is provided at a vehicle seat and that ejects gas during a vehicle collision; and an airbag including an airbag body that, by being supplied with gas ejected from the inflator, moves toward a seat front side through between a head of a passenger seated on a vehicle seat and a ceiling of a vehicle cabin, and is expanded and deployed, so as to be disposed at the seat front side of the passenger, wherein the airbag is housed in the headrest with both seat width direction end portions fold-bent toward a seat downward side, so as to follow an external profile of a headrest of the vehicle seat in face-on view seen from the seat front side.

An airbag device includes an inflator that is installed in an upper part of a vehicle seat, and that generates gas in an event of a vehicle collision, an airbag to which the gas from the inflator is supplied, and is inflated and deployed from the upper part of the vehicle seat toward a front side of the vehicle seat, and a diffuser that distributes the gas to the airbag. The diffuser includes a connecting portion that is connected to the inflator, and a plurality of branching portions that each branch from the connecting portion and connect to the airbag. The diffuser includes a silencing portion in at least the branching portions. The silencing portion reduces sound pressure of the gas.

A vehicle occupant protection device includes: an airbag that is configured to be stowed in a headrest, to receive a gas supply and is formed as a single bag body that, in an inflated and expanded state, includes a front inflation portion configured to be disposed at the front in a seat front-rear direction relative to a head of a vehicle occupant, and a pair of side inflation portions configured to be disposed at both sides in a seat width direction relative to the head of the vehicle occupant; an inflator that is fixed to an upper portion of a seatback frame in an attitude with a long dimension of the inflator in the seat width direction, the upper portion of the seatback frame extending in the seat width direction; and a fluid communication structure that communicates between the inflator and the airbag to allow a flow of gas.

A vehicle occupant protection device that includes: an airbag that is constructed as an integrated bag body that covers a head portion of a vehicle occupant and includes a forward-deploying portion, and a pair of left and right side-deploying portions which are connected to the forward-deploying portion and deploy in both left and right sides of the head portion, and that is housed in a folded state in an upper portion of a vehicle seat; an inflator that supplies gas to the airbag; and an airbag moving mechanism that causes the airbag to move from the upper portion of the vehicle seat over the head portion to the seat front side, so that a front end portion of the airbag is disposed further to the seat front side than a head top portion of the vehicle occupant who is seated in a normal state.

An occupant protection system includes: arm rests that are disposed on first and second width direction sides of a seat back and are rotatable between a substantially vertical storage position and a substantially horizontal use position; slide members that are slidable along the arm rests and have belt guides; a retractor that takes up webbing of a belt; and an electronic control unit that, (i) in a state before an occupant is seated in a vehicle seat, causes the arm rests to be held in the storage position and causes the slide members to slide in the seat upward direction above the head of the occupant, and that, (ii) when the occupant is seated, causes the arm rests to rotate to the use position, causes the slide members to slide toward base sides of the arm rests, and causes the webbing to be taken up by the retractor.