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Airb a g syste m
safety seat. It can be a very dangerous place for
an infant or a child in a rearward-facing seat.
The Advanced Airbag System in your veh icle has
been ce rt ified to comp ly with the requirements
of United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standard (FMVSS) 208, as well as Canada Motor
Veh icle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 208 as applica -
ble at the time your vehicle was manufactured.
According to requirements,
the front Advanced
Airbag System on the passenger s ide has been
certified for "suppression " for infants of about
12 month old and younger and for "low risk de-
ployment " for children aged 3 to 6 years old (as
defined in the standard).
The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light in the instru-
ment panel tells you when the front Advanced
Airbag on the passenger side has been t urned off
by the elect ronic cont rol un it.
Each t ime you tur n on the ignit ion , the
PASSEN-
GER AIR BAG OFF
light will come on fo r a few
seconds and :
- will stay on if the front passenger seat is not
occupied,
- will st ay on if there is a small child or child re-
straint on the front passenger seat,
- will go off if the front passenger seat is occu-
pied by an adult as reg istered by the weight -
sensing mat ¢ page 158, Monitoring the Ad-
vanced Airbag System .
The
PASSENGER AIR BAG O FF
light comes on
when the control unit detects a total we ight on
the front passenger seat that requires the front
airbag to be turned off.
If the tota l weight on the front passenger seat is
more than that of a typical 1 year -old child but
less than the we ight of a small adult, the front
a irbag on the passenger side can deploy (the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not come
on) .
If
t he
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does
not come on, the front a irbag on the passenger
side has not been turned off by the electronic
control unit and can deploy if the control unit
senses an impact that meets the condit ions stor -
ed in its memory.
For example, the airbag may deploy if:
150
- a small chi ld that is heavier than a typica l 1
year-o ld child is on th e front passenger seat
(regard less of whether the child is in one of the
child safety seats listed ¢ page 170), or
- a child who has outgrown child restraints is on
the front passenger seat.
If t he front passenger a irbag is t urned off, the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light comes on in the
instrument cluster and stays on.
The fro nt airbag on the passenge r side may not
deploy (the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does
not illuminate and stay lit) even if a small adu lt
or teenager, or a passenger who is not sitting up-
right with thei r back against a non-recl ined back-
rest with the ir fee t on the vehicle floor in front of
the sea t is on t he fron t passenger sea t
<=>
page 132, Proper seating position for the driv -
er .
If the front passenger a irbag deploys, the Feder-
al Standard requires t he airbag to meet the "low
risk" deployment cr iteria to reduce the risk of in-
jury through interaction w ith the airbag . "low
risk" deployment occurs in those crashes that
ta ke place at lowe r de cele rations as defined in
the e lec t ronic cont rol unit ¢ page 159, PASSEN-
GER AIR BAG OFF light.
Always remembe r, a chi ld safety seat or infant
car rie r ins t alled on t he front seat may be st ruck
and knocked out of posit ion by t he rap idly inflat-
ing passenge r's airbag in a frontal coll ision . The
airbag could greatly red uce the effectiveness of
the child restraint and even seriously injure the
child during inflation.
For th is reason, and beca use the back seat is the
safest place for children - when properly restrain -
ed according to their age and size - we strongly
recommend that children always sit in the back
seat
c>
page 168, Child safety .
A
WARNING
A child in a rearward-facing
child safety seat
installed on the front passenger seat will be
seriously injured and can be killed if the front
a irbag inflates - even with an Advanced Airbag
Syst em.
Ill>
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