A safety system for a motor vehicle having an internal-combustion engine. Independent quantities are used for the engine control and for the monitoring of the engine control. Control of the internal-combustion engine is performed, for example, by way of an operating parameter characterizing the engine load. Preferably, monitoring of the engine control is integrated into a traction control system, in which case the desired value for a quantity characterizing the vehicle propulsion, such as the output torque, is transmitted by the engine control to the monitoring system, while the actual output torque is determined in the traction control system from the rotational wheel speed. If a fault is recognized in the traction control system during the continuous comparison of desired values and actual values, a signal is transmitted back to the engine control unit, to influence the engine control.