Table of Contents
Advertisement
- Always keep feet in the footwell in front
of the seat while the vehicle is being driv-
en .
- Never let any person ride with feet on
the instrument panel or sticking out the
window or on the seat.
- Never remove a safety belt while the ve-
hicle is moving. Doing so will increase
your risk of being injured or killed .
- Never wear belts twisted.
- Never wear belts over rigid or breakable
objects in or on your clothing, such as
eye glasses, pens, keys, etc., as these
may cause injury.
- Never wear the shoulder part of the belt
under your arm or otherwise out of posi-
t ion .
- Several layers of heavy clothing may in-
terfere with correct positioning of belts
and reduce their effectiveness .
- Always keep belt buckles free of anything
that may prevent the buckle from latch-
ing securely .
- Never use comfort clips or devices t hat
create slack in the shoulder belt. Howev-
er, special clips may be required for the
correct use of some child restraint sys-
tems.
- Never allow safety belts to become dam-
aged by being caught in door or seat
hardware.
- Torn or frayed safety belts can tear and
damaged belt hardware can break in an
accident. Inspect belts regularly. If web -
bing, bindings, buckles, or retractors are
damaged, have belts replaced by an au-
thorized Audi dea ler or qualified work-
shop.
- Safety belts that have been worn and
loaded in an accident must be replaced
with the correct replacement safety belt
by an authorized Audi dealer or qualified
workshop . Replacement may be necessa -
ry even if damage cannot be clearly seen.
Anchorages that were loaded must also
be inspected .
- Never remove, modify, disassemble, or
try to repair the safety belts yourself.
Safety
belts
103
- Always keep the belts clean. Dirty belts
may not work properly and can impair
the function of the inertia reel
c:>
page 162, Safety belts .
Illustrating
the
principle
of an accident
Frontal collisions and the law of physics
Frontal crashes creat e very strong forces for
people riding in vehicles .
Fig. 112
Unbelted occup ants in a vehicle heading fo r a
wa ll
Fig. 113 The vehicle cras hes into th e wall.
The physical principles are simple. Both the
vehicle and the passengers possess energy
which vari es with vehicle speed and body
weight. Engineers call this energy "kinetic en-
ergy."
The higher the speed of the vehicle and the
greater the vehicle's weight, the more energy
that has to be "absorbed" in the crash.
Vehicle speed is the most significant factor. If
the speed doubles from 15 to 30 mph (25 to
50 km/h), the energy increases 4 times!
Because the occupants in this vehicle are not
using safety belts
c:>
fig . 112, they will keep
moving at the same speed the veh icle was
.,,_
Advertisement
Table of Contents
