A method and a device for avoiding a possible subsequent collision and for reducing the accident consequences of a collision, in which after a first collision of the vehicle with a further road user has taken place, an automatic braking intervention by a vehicle safety system is released according to a braking model by ascertaining vehicle data from the handling of the host vehicle, buffering the vehicle data ascertained in a memory, inferring the category of the road being traveled on at the moment from the buffered vehicle data, determining an initial distance as a function of the road category determined, and ascertaining the condition for releasing the brake using this initial distance.