Vehicle passenger restraint system

Claim 1

A vehicle passenger restraint system having: a plurality of electrically actuated restraint mechanisms (33, 34); an electrical deceleration switch (11) sensing deceleration of a vehicle and providing an output signal upon sensing (12) deceleration representative of a collision or imminence of a collision; a source (U b ) of electrical power; electrical switch means (13), connected to and controlled by (B) the output signal, and closing an electrical circuit including respective individual restraint trigger firing circuits (14-17), each controlling operation of a respective restraint mechanism (33, 34), each restraint trigger firing circuit having a current lead-in terminal (20, 21) connected to the source of power (U b ) and a current lead-off or return terminal (22, 23) connected to a first connection terminal (C) of the switch means (13), and then through a second connection terminal (E) of the switch means (13) to a return terminal (24, 30, Ch) of the source of power, wherein, to facilitate testing of said restraint trigger firing circuits with a minimal number of test apparatus terminals, the number of current lead-in terminals multiplied by the number of current lead-off or return terminals corresponds at least to the number of restraint trigger firing circuits (14-17); and wherein each restraint trigger firing circuit (14-17) is connected to a different selected pair of a current lead-in terminal (20, 21) and a current lead-off or return terminal (14: 21, 22; 15: 21, 23; 16: 20, 22; 17: 20, 23).