1997 GMC SIERRA belt

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Safety Belt Use During Pregnancy
Safety belts work for everyone, including pregnant
women. Like
all occupants, they are more likely to be
seriously injured if they don't wear safety belts.
To unlatch the belt, just push the button on the buckle.
The belt should go back
out of the way.
Before you close the door, be sure the belt
is out of the
way.
If you slam the door on it, you can damage both the
belt and your vehicle.
A pregnant woman should wear a lap-shoulder belt, ana
the lap portion should be worn as low as possible, below
the rounding, throughout
the pregnancy.
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The best way to protect the fetus is to protect the
mother. When a safety belt is worn properly, it’s more
likely that the fetus won’t be hurt in a crash. For
pregnant women, as for anyone, the key to making
safety belts effective is wearing them properly.
Right Front Passenger Position
The right front passenger’s safety belt works the same
way as the driver’s safety belt. See “Driver Position”
earlier in this section.
Wheri the lap belt is pulled out all the way, it will lock.
(This is the child restraint locking feature working
normally.) If the belt locks, let it
go back all the way
and start again.
Supplemental Inflatable
Restraint System
This part explains the Supplemental Inflatable Restraint
system or air bag system.
Your vehicle may have an
air bag for the driver and
another air bag for the
right front passenger. If
it does, it will say
Supplemental Inflatable
Restraint
on the middle
part of the steering wheel.
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~ Here
are the most important things to know about the air
bag system:
A CAUTION:
You can be severely injured or killed in a crash if
you aren’t wearing your safety belt -- even if you
have air bags. Wearing your safety belt during a
crash helps reduce your chance of hitting things
inside the vehicle or being ejected from it. Air
bags are “supplemental restraints” to the safety
belts. All air bags are designed to work with
safety belts, but donY replace them.
Air bags are
designed to work only in moderate to severe
crashes where the front
of your vehicle hits
something. They aren’t designed to inflate at all
in rollover, rear, side or low-speed frontal
crashes. Everyone in your vehicle should wear a safety belt properly
-- whether or not there’s
an air bag for that person.
A CAUTION:
Air bags inflate with great force, faster than the
blink of an eye.
If you’re too close to an inflating
air bag, it could seriously injure you. Safety belts
help keep you in position before and during a
crash. Always wear your safety belt, even with air
bags. The driver should sit as far back as possible
while still maintaining control of the vehicle.
An inflating air bag can seriously injure small
children. Always secure children properly in your
vehicle. To read how, see the part
of this manual
called “Children” and the caution
label on the
right front passenger’s safety belt.
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When should an air bag inflate?
An air bag is designed to inflate in a moderate to severe
frontal or near-frontal crash. The air bag will inflate
only
if the impact speed is above the system’s designed
“threshold level.”
If your vehicle goes straight into a
wall that doesn’t move or deform, the threshold level
is
about 9 to 16 mph (14 to 26 km/h). The threshold level
can vary, however,
with specific vehicle design, so that
it can be somewhat above or below this range. If your
vehicle strikes something that will move or deform, such
as
a parked car, the threshold level will be higher. The
air bag is not designed to inflate in rollovers, side
impacts or rear impacts, because inflation would not
help
the occupant.
In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air
bag should have inflated simply because of the damage
to
a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were.
Inflation
is determined by the angle of the impact and
how quickly the vehicle slows down
in frontal or
near-frontal impacts. The air
bag system
is designed to work properly under
a wide range
of conditions, including off-road usage.
Observe safe driving speeds, especially on rough terrain.
As always, wear your safety belt. See “Off-Road
Driving”
in the Index for more tips on off-road driving.
What makes an air bag inflate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing
system detects that the vehicle
is in a crash. The sensing
system triggers a release
of gas from the inflator, which
inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag and related
hardware are all part of the air bag modules inside the
steering wheel and
in the instrument panel in front of
the right front passenger.
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How does an air bag restrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel
or the instrument panel. Air bags supplement the
protection provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute
the force
of the impact more evenly over the occupant’s
upper body, stopping
the occupant more gradually. But
air bags would not help you in many types of collisions,
including rollovers, rear impacts and side impacts,
primarily because an occupant’s motion
is not toward
those air bags. Air bags should never be regarded
as anything more than a supplement to safety belts,
and then only
in moderate to severe frontal or
near-frontal collisions.
What will you see after an air bag inflates?
After an
air bag inflates, it quickly deflates, so
quickly that some people may not even realize the
air bag inflated. Some components
of the air bag
module
-- the steering wheel hub for the driver’s air bag,
or the instrument panel for the right front passenger’s
bag
-- will be hot for a short time. The parts of the bag
that come into contact with you may be warm, but not
too hot to touch. There will be some smoke and dust
coming from vents in the deflated air bags. Air bag
inflation doesn’t prevent the driver from seeing or from
being able to steer the vehicle, nor does it stop people
from leaving the vehicle.
A CAUTION:
When an air bag inflates, there is dust in the air.
This dust could cause breathing problems for
people with a history
of asthma or other
breathing trouble. To avoid this, everyone in the
vehicle should get
out as soon as it is safe to do so.
If you have breathing problems but can’t get out
of the vehicle after an air bag inflates, then get
fresh air
by opening a window or door.
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In many crashes severe enough to inflate an air bag,
windshields are broken by
vehicle deformation.
Additional windshield breakage may also occur from
the right front passenger air bag.
Air bags are designed to inflate only once. After they
inflate, you’ll need
some new parts for your air bag
system. If you don’t get them, the air bag system
won’t be there to help protect you
in another crash.
A new system will include air bag modules and
possibly other parts. The service manual for your
vehicle covers the need to replace other parts.
Your vehicle is equipped with a crash sensing
and diagnostic module, which records information
about the air bag system. The module records
information about the readiness
of the system,
when the sensors are activated and driver’s safety
belt usage at deployment.
Unless you have a Crew Cab, your vehicle has a
switch on
the instrument panel that you can use to
turn off the passenger’s air bag. But use this switch
only when
you want to secure a rear-facing child
restraint at the right front passenger’s position. See
“Securing a Child Restraint in the Right Front Seat
Position” in the Index for more on this, including
important safety information.
A CAUTION:
If the right front passenger’s air bag is turned
off, an adult or a child who is no longer an infant
sitting in the right front passenger’s position
won’t have the extra protection of an air bag.
In
a crash, the air bag wouldn’t be able to inflate
and help protect the person sitting there. Make
sure the air bag
is turned on unless you are using
a rear-facing child restraint in the right front
seat position.
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Center Passenger Position
Lap Belt
If your vehicle has front and rear bench seats, someone
can sit
in the center positions.
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Rear (Extended and Crew Cab)
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Front (All) Rear (Extended and Crew Cab)
When you sit in a center seating position, you have a lap
safety belt, which has
no retractor. To make the belt
longer, tilt the latch plate and pull it along the belt.
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