Airbag deployment control apparatus for vehicle and the method

The invention provides for an airbag deployment control apparatus and method and includes the use of a three-direction accelerometer (10) and a crash-pattern discriminating means (20) in order to reliably distinguish a slight crash from a serious crash or vice versa. The three-direction accelerometer (10) generates deceleration signals of forward, lateral and vertical directions of a vehicle. The deceleration signals generated are input to an integrator (16) to be converted into three-direction velocity change signals. In the crash-pattern discriminating means (20), crash patterns are discriminated by use of the three-direction velocity change signals. In an airbag-deployment determining means (22), the velocity change is compared with a threshold for a crash pattern discriminated and an airbag deploying signal is output to an airbag deploying portion when the velocity change exceeds the threshold. The threshold is predetermined and classified by crash patterns and, in practice, since the delayed deployment of the airbag is prevented, it is possible to protect vehicle occupants reliably.