As new technologies for light vehicles are being developed and first city cars are appearing on the market, the necessity to provide adequate occupant protection becomes apparent. First crash tests have revealed the problems involved in the design of ultra-short vehicles and the need to shorten the frontal crash zones However some designs have shown to be able to absorb the impact energy on very short distances and thereby preserving the structural integrity of the occupant compartment. Short crash zone, however, result in high deceleration levels on the occupant compartment. The restraint system of such vehicles therefore requires special consideration, since the occupant is not capable of carrying the loads of the ride-down 0f the compartment. The study to be presented, has used simulation methods to find an optimised restraint system by studying the equivalent of 2000 sled tests. It could be shown, that with the proper combination of off-the-shelf restraint system components, an occupant safety system for a city car with an extremely short crash zone is feasible.