1997 CADILLAC CATERA child seat

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Section 1 Seats and Restraint Systems
Here you’ll find information about the seats in your Catera and how to use your safety belts properly. You can also
learn about some things you should
not do with air bags and safety belts.
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Seats and Seat Controls
Safety Belts: They’re for Everyone
Here Are Questions Many People Ask
About Safety Belts
-- and the Answers
How to Wear Safety Belts Properly
Driver Position Safety Belt Use During Pregnancy
Right Front Passenger Position Air Bag Systems
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1-51 Rear Seat Passengers Center Passenger Position
Children
Child Restraints
Larger Children
Safety Belt Extender
Checking Your Restraint Systems
Replacing Restraint System
Parts
After a Crash
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Child Restraints
Be sure the child restraint is designed to be used in a
vehicle. If it is, it will have
a label saying that it meets
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Then follow the instructions
for the restraint. You may
find these instructions on the restraint itself or in
a
booklet, or both. These restraints use the belt system in
your vehicle, but the child also has to be secured within
the restraint
to help reduce the chance of personal injury.
The instructions that come with the infant or child
restraint will show you how to do that.
Where to Put the Restraint
Accident statistics show that children are safer if they
are restrained in the rear rather than the front seat. We at
General Motors therefore recommend that you put your
child restraint in the rear seat.
Never put a rear-facing
child restraint in the front passenger seat. Here’s why:
A child in a rear-facing child restraint can be
seriously injured if the right front passenger’s air
bag inflates. This is because the back
of a
rearfacing child restraint would be very close to
the inflating air bag. Always secure a rearfacing
child restraint in the rear seat.
You may, however, secure
a forward-facing child
restraint in the right front seat. Before you secure
a forward-facing child restraint, always move the
front passenger seat as
far back as it will go. Or,
secure the child restraint in the rear seat.
Wherever you install it, be sure to secure the child
restraint properly.
Keep
in mind that an unsecured child restraint can move
around in a collision or sudden stop and injure people in
the vehicle. Be sure
to properly secure any child
restraint in your vehicle
-- even when no child is in it.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Securing a Child Restraint in a Rear
Outside Seat Position
You’ll be u,sing the lap-shoulder belt. See the earlier part
about the top strap if the child restraint has one.
1. Put the restraint on the seat. Follow the instructions
for the child restraint.
2. Secure the child in the child restraint as the
instructions say.
3. Pick up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicle’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show you how.
If the shoulder belt goes in front of the child’s face or
neck, put it behind the child restraint.
4. Buckle the belt. Make sure the release button is
positioned
so you would be able to unbuckle the
safety belt quickly if
you ever had to.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Securing a Child Restraint in the Center
Rear
Seat Position
U
You’ll be using the lap belt.
See the earlier part about the top strap if the child
restraint has one.
1. Make the belt as long as possible by tilting the latch
2. Put the restraint on the seat. Follow the instructions
plate and pulling
it along the
belt.
for the child restraint.
3. Secure the child in the child restraint as the
instruct-ions say.
4. Run the vehicle’s safety belt through or around the
restraint. The child restraint instructions will show
you how.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Securing a Child Restraint in the Right
Front Seat Position You’ll be using the lap-shoulder belt. See the earlier part
about the top strap if the child restraint has one.
Your vehicle has a right front passenger air bag.
Never
put a rear-facing child restraint in this seat. Here’s why:
A child in a rearfacing child restraint can De
seriously injured
if the right front passenger’s air
bag inflates. This is because the back of a
rearfacing child restraint would be very close to
the inflating air bag. Always secure a rearfacing
child restraint in the rear seat.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Because your vehicle has a right front passenger air
bag, always move the seat as far back as it will
go
before securing a forward-facing child restraint. (See
“Seats” in the Index.)
Put the restraint on the seat. Follow the instructions
for the child restraint.
Secure the child in the child restraint as the
instructions say.
Pick
up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicle’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show
you how.
If the shoulder belt goes in front of the child’s face or
neck, put it behind the child restraint.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Accident statistics show that children are safer if they
are restrained in the rear seat. But they need
to use the
safety belts properly.
Children who aren’t buckled up can be thrown out in
a crash.
Children who aren’t buckled up can strike other
people who are.
F
Never do this.
Here two children are wearing the same belt. The
belt can’t properly spread the impact forces. In
a
crash, the two children can be crushed together
and seriously injured.
A belt must be used by
only one person at a time.
@ What if a child is wearing a lap-shoulder belt,
but the child is
so small that the shoulder belt is
very close to the child’s face or neck?
A: Move the child toward the center of the vehicle, but
be sure that the shoulder belt still is on the child’s
shoulder,
so that in a crash the child’s upper body
would have the restraint that belts provide.
If the
child is
so small that the shoulder belt is still very
close to the child’s face or neck, you might want to
place the child in the center seat position, the one
that has only a lap belt.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine A CAUTION:
I -
Never do this.
Here a child is sitting in a seat that has a
lap-shoulder belt, but the shoulder part is behind
the child.
If the child wears the belt in this way, in
a crash the child might slide under the belt. The
belt's force would then be applied right on the
child's abdomen. That could cause serious or
fatal injuries.
Wherever the child sits, the lap portion of the belt
should be
worn low and snug on the hips, just touching
the child's thighs.
This applies belt force to the child's
pelvic bones in
a crash.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Do not load your vehicle any heavier than the
GVWR, or either the maximum front or rear
GAWR.
If you do, parts on your vehicle can
break, or
it can change the way your vehicle
handles. These could cause you to lose control.
Also, overloading can shorten the life of
your vehicle.
NOTICE:
Your warranty does not cover parts or
components that fail because of overloading.
If you put things inside your vehicle -- like suitcases,
tools, packages
or anything else -- they will go as fast as
the vehicle goes.
If you have to stop or turn quickly, or
if there is a crash, they’ll keep going.
Things you put inside your vehicle can strike
and injure people in
a sudden stop or turn,
or in
a crash.
Put things in the trunk of your vehicle. In a
trunk, put them
as far forward as you can.
Try to spread the weight evenly.
Never stack heavier things, like suitcases,
inside the vehicle
so that some of them are
above the tops of the seats.
Don’t leave an unsecured child restraint in
your vehicle.
When you carry something inside the
vehicle, secure it whenever you can.
Don’t leave a seat folded down unless you
need to.
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