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Safety
Occupant safety
Restraint systems
This section will familiarise you with the
most important features of the restraint
systems in your vehicle. In the event of an
accident, your vehicle may collide with an-
other object, e.g. another vehicle. This may
result in rapid acceleration or deceleration
of your vehicle. During this acceleration or
deceleration, the vehicle occupants will be
moved in the opposite direction to the
force of the impact. There is therefore the
risk of vehicle occupants injuring them-
selves on the vehicle interior or on parts of
the vehicle. The purpose of supplemental
restraint systems – first and foremost the
seat belts supplemented where necessary
by belt tensioners, belt force limiters and
airbags – is to minimise this risk of injury.
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However, seat belts and airbags are gener-
ally unable to prevent injuries caused by
objects penetrating the vehicle from the
outside.
Seat belts are the most effective restraint
systems as they effectively reduce the
movement of the occupants in case of im-
pact.
The roll-over bars and the Supplemental
Restraint System (SRS) offer additional
protection. The SRS consists of:
Belt tensioners
Belt force limiters
Airbags
i
An airbag increases the protection of vehicle
occupants wearing a seat belt.However, airbags
are only an additional restraint system which
complements, but does not replace, the seat
belt. All vehicle occupants must wear their seat
belt correctly at all times, even if the vehicle is
equipped with airbags. This is because – on the
one hand – airbags are not deployed in all types
of accident, as in some situations airbag deploy-
ment would not increase the protection afforded
to vehicle occupants, provided they are wearing
their seat belt correctly. On the other hand, air-
bag deployment only provides increased protec-
tion if the seat belt is worn correctly because:
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