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Airb a g syste m
seat . It can be a very dangerous place fo r 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 Federa l 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 ele ct roni c con tr ol un it.
Each t ime you sw itch on the ign it ion, the
PAS-
SENGER 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 stay 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 156, Monitoring the Ad-
vanced Airbag System .
The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light comes on
when the control unit detects a tota l we ight on
the front passenger seat that requires the front
a irbag 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
ligh t 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:
148
- a small ch ild that is heav ier than a typica l 1
year-o ld child is on the front passenger seat
(regard less of whether the child is in one of the
child 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 m ay 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 their 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 front passenger seat
<=>
page 130, Proper seating position for the driv -
er .
If the front passenger a irbag deploys, the Feder-
al Standard requires the airbag to meet the "low
risk" deployment cr iteria to reduce the risk of in-
j ury th rough interaction w ith the airbag . "low
risk" deployment occurs in t hose crashes that
ta ke place at lowe r d ecele rations as defi ned in
the e lec t ronic co nt rol unit ¢ page 156, PASSEN-
GER AIR BAG OFF light.
Always remembe r, a ch ild seat or infant ca rrie r
insta lled on the fron t seat may be str uck a nd
knocked out of pos it ion by t he rapid ly inflat ing
passenger 's airbag in a frontal co llision . The a ir-
bag cou ld great ly reduce the effectiveness of the
child rest raint and even seriously injure the child
during inflat ion.
For th is reason, and beca use the back seat is the
safest place for children - when proper ly 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 seat instal-
led on the front passenger seat will be seri-
ously injured and can be killed if the front air-
bag inflates - even with an Advanced Airbag
Syst em.
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