A driver assistance system includes, but is not limited to at least one environment sensor, an evaluation unit for identifying a potential hazardous traffic situation, and at least one actuator that can be activated by said evaluation unit for executing a warning intervention or a hazard-mitigating intervention according to the degree of hazard of the traffic situation identified by the evaluation unit. The evaluation unit is set up to distinguish at least three degrees of hazard of a potentially hazardous traffic situation and upon determining a degree of hazard that goes beyond that of the hazard-mitigating intervention, to trigger an emergency intervention of the actuator.