A vehicle occupant protection system and a method for actuating a vehicle occupant protection device in a vehicle are provided. The distance from an obstacle is sensed, a braking deceleration which is necessary to avoid a collision is determined, and the determined braking deceleration is used to determine whether a predefined event has occurred. When the predefined event occurs, the vehicle occupant protection device is actuated in order to trigger it or to activate it for the purpose of triggering, the necessary braking deceleration being determined or the determined necessary braking deceleration being evaluated for the occurrence of the predefined event, only if a driver of the vehicle has activated a brake activation element in order to initiate a braking operation.