An optical fiber sensor can be interposed between a bumper reinforcement
and a load transmitting plate to extend in the direction of width of a
vehicle along with the bumper reinforcement. In this case, when a change
does not occur substantially in an immediately previous predetermined
period in an output voltage of a light emission amount of the optical
fiber sensor, a feedback control is performed in such a way that the
change becomes a level of zero of the output voltage of the optical fiber
sensor. In contrast, when a change in the output voltage is not
substantially zero, the immediately previous state of emission of light
is maintained. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively compensate a
zero point shift caused by a temperature change or/and an aging
degradation of the optical fiber sensor.