Occupant Safety - SMART fortwo coupe Operator's Manual

Occupant safety

The smart vehicle is equipped with seat belts
and dual stage air bags to protect you in a
crash. However, children can be killed or se
riously injured by an inflating air bag. Indeed,
there is a stronger risk of serious death or
bodily injury when an air bag deploys on a
child positioned in a rear facing child seat in
the passenger seat. Because this vehicle has
only two front seats and no backseat, it is lim
ited as are other two seat vehicles, in the ex
tent to which it may restrain children
traveling in the passenger front seat. Many
states have laws against placing children of
certain ages in the front seat of a vehicle that
has both front and back seats. Those laws
make exceptions to permit children to be re
strained in the front seat of two seat vehicles.
Special instructions and warnings are provid
ed below about when and if you may restrain a
child in the passenger seat of the smart vehi
cle. Under certain circumstances,
48
>> Safety.
it is appropriate for the passenger air bag not
to operate when a child is restrained in a car
seat in the passenger seat, and this vehicle is
equipped with technology to accomplish this.
Please pay very close attention to the instruc
tions and warnings below, particularly as they
relate to children.
In this section you will learn the most
important facts about the restraint system
components of the vehicle.
• Seat belts ( page 50)
• Child restraints ( page 66)
Additional protection potential provided by
• Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) with
• Air bags ( page 54)
• Air bag control unit (with crash sensors)
• Emergency Tensioning Devices and seat
belt force limiters ( page 53)
Air bag system components with
• Passenger front air bag off indicator lamp
( page 64)
• Passenger seat with Occupant
Classification System (OCS) ( page 60)
Although independent systems, their
protective functions work in conjunction with
each other.
i
For information on infants and children
traveling with you in the vehicle and restraint
systems for infants and children, see
"Children in the vehicle" ( page 65).