Mercedes-Benz 2013 SL Operator's Manual page 58

Occupant safety
56
needed to provide the best possible
protection in a rollover.
Air bags provide additional protection; they
are not, however, a substitute for seat belts.
All vehicle occupants must fasten their seat
belts.
It is important for your safety and that of your
passengers to have deployed air bags
replaced and to have any malfunctioning air
bags repaired. This will help to make sure the
air bags continue to perform their protective
function for the vehicle occupants in the
event of a crash.
Front air bags
Driver's air bag : deploys in front of the
steering wheel; front-passenger front air
bag ; deploys in front of and above the glove
box.
The front air bags increase protection against
head and chest injuries.
They are deployed:
in the event of certain frontal impacts
R
if the system determines that air bag
R
deployment can offer additional protection
to that provided by the seat belt
depending on whether the seat belt is being
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used
independently of other air bags in the
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vehicle
If the vehicle overturns, the front air bags are
generally not deployed. If the system detects
high vehicle deceleration in a longitudinal
direction, the front air bags are deployed.
Your vehicle has adaptive, two-stage front air
bags. In the event of a collision, the air bag
control unit evaluates the vehicle
deceleration. In the first deployment stage,
the front air bag is filled with enough
propellant gas to reduce the risk of injuries.
The front air bag is fully deployed if a second
deployment threshold is exceeded within a
few milliseconds.
The deployment of the front-passenger front
air bag is also influenced by the weight
category of the front passenger, which is
determined by the Occupant Classification
System (OCS) ( page 59).
Y
The lighter the passenger side occupant, the
higher the vehicle deceleration rate required
(predicted at the start of the impact) for
second-stage inflation of the front-passenger
front air bag. In the second stage, the front
air bags are inflated with the maximum
amount of propellant gas available.
The front air bags are not deployed in
situations where a low impact severity is
predicted. You will then be protected by the
fastened seat belt.
Front-passenger front air bag will only deploy
if:
the system, based on the OCS weight
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sensor readings, has detected that the
front-passenger seat is occupied.
the ^a indicator lamp on the center
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console is not lit (
Y
the air bag control unit predicts a high
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impact severity.
page 59).