Children And Air Bags; How Does The Air Bag Supplemental Restraint System Work? - Ford Focus Owner's Manual

Do not attempt to service, repair, or modify the air bag
supplemental restraint systems or its fuses. See your Ford or
Lincoln Mercury dealer.

Children and air bags

Children must always be properly
restrained. Accident statistics
suggest that children are safer when
properly restrained in the rear
seating positions than in the front
seating position. Failure to follow
these instructions may increase the
risk of injury in a collision.
Air bags can kill or injure a
child in a child seat.
NEVER place a rear-facing child
seat in front of an active air bag. If
you must use a forward-facing
child seat in the front seat, move
the seat all the way back.

How does the air bag supplemental restraint system work?

The air bag SRS is designed to
activate when the vehicle sustains
longitudinal deceleration sufficient
to cause the sensors to close an
electrical circuit that initiates air
bag inflation. The fact that the air
bags did not inflate in a collision
does not mean that something is
wrong with the system. Rather, it
means the forces were not of the
type sufficient to cause activation.
Front air bags are designed to
inflate in frontal and near-frontal collisions, not rollover, side-impact, or
rear-impacts unless the collision causes sufficient longitudinal
deceleration.
2004 Focus (foc)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA English (fus)
Seating and Safety Restraints
91