System and method for controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus

Control systems (20-27) and methods for a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus (11-19), including a right side-crash sensor (23) and a left side-crash sensor (24) both operable to detect a side crash of a vehicle (10) on the basis of a lateral acceleration value (GY) of center pillar of the vehicle, and rollover detecting means (20,520,530) for detecting a rollover motion of the vehicle on the basis of outputs of a roll rate sensor (21) and a lateral acceleration sensor (22). The control systems are operable, upon detection of the side crash, to inflate one of right and left curtain-shield airbags (11,13) which is on the side of the side crash, and one of right and left side airbags (12,14) which is on the side of the side crash, and invalidate the detection of the rollover motion for a predetermined time (T10,T20) after the movement of the detection, in order to prevent inflation of the other curtain-shield airbag (11,13) on the non-crash side, which would take place when the vehicle has the side crash without an actual rollover motion.