VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE

A vehicle control device activates a safety device for suppressing a collision between a host vehicle and an oncoming vehicle that is traveling straight along an oncoming traffic lane, when the host vehicle changes from traveling straight along its own traffic lane to making a right or left turn to cross the oncoming traffic lane. The vehicle control device includes a judgement unit and a control unit, where the judgement unit judges when the host vehicle is in a right or left turning condition prior to crossing the oncoming traffic lane, and if is determined that the host vehicle is in the right or left turning condition, the control unit activates the safety device based on a time to lateral collision. The time to lateral collision is obtained by dividing a lateral distance by a lateral velocity, where the lateral velocity is the velocity of the host vehicle in a lateral direction orthogonal to the straight travel direction of the oncoming vehicle, and the lateral distance is the distance, in the lateral direction, from the host vehicle to a predetermined vehicle traffic area defined along the straight travel path of the oncoming vehicle.