It is important to recognize the severity of an accident more accurately and reliably. To do so, the present invention consists of installing a compression element (25) that can be compressed reversibly into an impact absorption device (2) in order to dampen the impact on a vehicle component. A pressure sensor is integrated in this compression element (25) which detects the pressure during compression of the compression element (25). From the pressure signal, data such as the collision speed can be determined and a safety device such as an airbag can be triggered. By doing so, expensive early crash sensors and similar devices become unnecessary, while the severity of an accident can be reliably determined.