A safety system (10) for a vehicle (12) includes multiple collision detection sensors (14), such as discretized patch sensors. The collision detection sensors (14) are coupled to a peripheral area (18) of the vehicle (12) and generate a collision detection signal (17). A controller (16) is coupled to the sensors (14) and determines collision type in response to the collision detection signal (17). The controller (16) performs a countermeasure in response to the collision type. The controller (16) may include a collision location estimator (22) for determining collision severity and collision contact location on the vehicle (12) and a coordinated device activation system (24) for performing the countermeasure.