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Safety Standard 208 as applicable at the time
your vehicle was manufactured.
The Standard requires the front airbag on the
passenger side to be t urned off ("sup-
pressed") if a child up to about one year of
age restrained in one of the rear -facing or for-
ward -facing infant restra ints listed in Federal
Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 with wh ich
the Advanced Airbag System in your vehicle
was certified has been installed on the front
passenger seat. For a listing of the child re-
straints that were used to certify compliance
with the US Safety Standard
q page 138.
The
PASSENG ER AIR BAG OFF
light in the in-
strument panel tells you when the front Ad-
vanced Airbag on the passenger side has bee n
turned off by the electronic control unit.
Each t ime you turn on the ignition, the
PAS-
SENGER AIR BAG OFF
light will come on for a
few seco nds and:
- will stay on if the front passenger seat is not
occupied,
- will stay on if there is a small child or child
restraint on the front passenger seat,
- will go off if the front passenger seat is oc-
cupied by an adult as registered by the
weight-sensing mat
q page 125, Monitor-
ing the Advanced Airbag System.
The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light comes on
when the control unit detects a total weight
on the front passenger seat that requires the
front airbag to be tu rned off.
If the total weight on the front passenger
seat is more than that of a typical 1 year-old
child but less than the weight of a sma ll
ad ult, the front airbag on the passenge r side
can dep loy (the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not come on) . If t he
PASSENGER
AIR BAG OFF
ligh t does not come on, the
front airbag on the passenger side has not
been turned off by the electronic control unit
and can dep loy if the control unit senses an
impact that meets the conditions stored in its
memory.
For example , the airbag may deploy if :
A irbag sys tem
117
- a small child t hat is heav ier t han a typical 1
year -old child is on the front passenger seat
(regard less of whether the child is in one of
the child safety seats listed
q page 138),
or
- a child who has outgrown child restraints is
on the front passenger seat.
If the front passenger airbag is turned off, the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light comes on in
the instr ument cluster and stays on .
The front airbag on t he passenge r side may
not
deploy (t he
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not illuminate and stay lit) even if a
small ad ult or teenager, or a passenger who is
not sitting upright with their back against a
non-recl ined backrest with their feet on the
vehicle floor in front of the seat is on the front
passenger seat ¢
page 99, Proper seating po -
sition for the driver.
If the front passenger airbag dep loys, the
Federa l Standard requ ires the airbag to meet
t he "low risk" dep loyment criteria to reduce
t he risk of injury th rough inte ract ion with the
airbag. "Low risk" deployment occurs in those
crashes t hat ta ke pla ce at lower dece lerat ions
as defined in the electronic control unit
¢
page 12 6, PASSENG ER AIR BAG OFF light.
Always remember, a child safety seat or infant
carrier inst alled on t he fron t seat may be
stru ck and knocked out of posit ion by t he rap-
idly inflat ing passenger 's airbag in a fronta l
collision. The airbag could great ly red uce the
effectiveness of the child restraint and even
seriously injure the child during inflation.
For t his reason, and because the back seat is
the safest place for children - when proper ly
rest rained according to their age and size - we
strong ly recommend that children always sit
in the back seat¢
page 136, Child Safety .
A
WARNING
-
A child in a rearward-facing child safety
seat inst alled on t he fron t passenger seat
will be ser ious ly injured and can be killed if
the front airbag inflates - even with an Ad-
vanced Airbag System .
..,_
•
•
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