A system and method for optimizing various vehicle safety systems, such as airbags and seat belt load tensioning limiters, for a particular occupant of a vehicle seat, such as the vehicle driver or passenger, based on the weight of the occupant and the fore-aft position of the seat. The method senses the mass of the occupant and the position of the seat and classifies the combination of the mass and position. The method then determines the optimized setting of the safety systems for that combination classification, and automatically sets the safety systems to that setting. The method can also determine the optimized setting of the safety systems based on whether the occupant is wearing a seat belt.