How Does The Personal Safety System Work; Driver And Passenger Dual-Stage Air Bag Supplemental Restraints; Front Crash Severity Sensor - Ford 2004 Crown Victoria Owner's Manual

Seating and Safety Restraints
Your vehicle's Personal Safety System consists of the following items:

• Driver and passenger dual-stage air bag supplemental restraints

• Driver and front passenger side air bags (if equipped)
• Front safety belts with pretensioners, energy management retractors,
and safety belt usage sensors
• Driver's seat position sensor

• Front crash severity sensor

• Restraints Control Module (RCM) with impact and safing sensors
• Restraint system warning light and back-up tone
• The electrical wiring for the air bags, crash sensor(s), safety belt
pretensioners, front safety belt usage sensors, driver seat position
sensor, and indicator lights

How does the Personal Safety System work?

The Personal Safety System can adapt the deployment strategy of your
vehicle's safety devices according to crash severity and occupant
conditions. A collection of crash and occupant sensors provides
information to the Restraints control module (RCM). During a crash, the
RCM activates the safety belt pretensioners and/or either one or both
stages of the dual-stage air bag supplemental restraints based on crash
severity and occupant conditions.
The fact that the pretensioners or air bags did not activate for both front
seat occupants in a collision does not mean that something is wrong with
the system. Rather, it means the Personal Safety System determined the
accident conditions (crash severity, belt usage, etc.) were not
appropriate to activate these safety devices. Front air bags and
pretensioners are designed to activate only in frontal and near-frontal
collisions, not rollovers, side-impacts, or rear-impacts unless the collision
causes sufficient longitudinal deceleration.
Driver and passenger dual-stage air bag supplemental restraints
The dual-stage air bags offer the capability to tailor the level of air bag
inflation energy. A lower, less forceful energy level is provided for more
common, moderate-severity impacts. A higher energy level is used for
the most severe impacts. Refer to Air bag supplemental restraints
section in this chapter.
Front crash severity sensor
The front crash severity sensor enhances the ability to detect the
severity of an impact. Positioned up front, it provides valuable
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2004 Crown Victoria (cro)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA English (fus)