The present invention is directed to controlling a vehicle multistage actuatable occupant restraining system (14, 18). A crash sensor (32, 36) senses crash acceleration and provides a crash acceleration signal (110, 160) indicative thereof. Crash velocity and crash displacement are determined (118, 168) in response to the crash acceleration signal. A first stage (90, 94) of the multistage actuatable occupant restraining system is actuated when the determined crash velocity as a function of crash displacement exceeds a low threshold (130, 132, 180, 182). A transverse accelerometer (34) senses transverse crash acceleration. The transverse acceleration as a function of the crash displacement is compared (226, 278) against a transverse threshold (268). The value of the low threshold (130, 180) is switched to a different value (132, 182) when the transverse acceleration exceeds the transverse threshold.