Occupant safety
Introduction
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 seriously 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 limited
as are other two-seat vehicles, in the
extent 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 vehi-
cle that has both front and back seats. Those
laws make exceptions to permit children to
be restrained in the front seat of two seat
vehicles. Special instructions and warn-
ings are provided below about when and if
you may restrain a child in the passenger
seat of the smart vehicle. Under certain
circumstances, 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 equip-
ped with technology to accomplish this.
Please pay very close attention to the
instructions and warnings below, particu-
larly as they relate to children.
In this section you will learn the most
important facts about the restraint system
components of the vehicle.
The restraint systems are:
R
Seat belts (Y page 31)
R
Child restraints (Y page 42)
Additional protection potential is pro-
vided by:
R
Supplemental Restraint System (SRS)
with
-
Air bags (Y page 33)
-
Air bag control unit (with crash sen-
sors)
-
Emergency Tensioning Devices and
seat belt force limiters (Y page 33)
R
Air bag system components with
-
Passenger front air bag off indicator
lamp (Y page 41)
-
Passenger seat with Occupant Classi-
fication System (OCS) (Y page 39)
Although independent systems, their pro-
tective functions work in conjunction with
each other.
i
For information on infants and chil-
dren traveling with you in the vehicle
and restraint systems for infants and
children, see “Children in the vehicle”
(Y page 42).
The SRS system conducts a self-test when
the ignition is switched on and in regular
intervals while the engine is running. This
facilitates detection of malfunctions. The
SRS indicator lamp 6 in the instrument
cluster comes on when the ignition is
switched on and goes out after approx-
imately four seconds.
The SRS components are in operational
readiness if the SRS indicator lamp 6
is not lit when the engine is running.
A malfunction in the system has been
detected if the SRS indicator lamp 6
R
fails to go out after approximately 4 sec-
onds after the ignition was switched on
R
does not come on at all
R
comes on after the engine was started or
while driving
G
WARNING
Modifications to or work improperly con-
ducted on restraint systems (such as seat
30
Occupant safety
>> Safety.
