1997 GMC SIERRA child restraint

Section 1 Seats and Restraint Systems
Here you’ll find information about the seats in your vehicle and how to use your safety belts properly. You can also
learn about some things you should
nut do with air bags and safety belts.
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1-32 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
Supplemental Inflatable Restraint System
Center Passenger Position 1-34
1-40 Rear
Seat Passengers
Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for Children
and Smaller Adults
1-43 Children
1-45 Child Restraints
1-62 Larger Children
1-65 Safety Belt Extender 1-65 Checking Your Restraint Systems
1-65 Replacing Restraint System Parts After
a Crash
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How to Wear Safety Belts Properly
Adults
This part is only for people of adult size.
Be aware that there are special things to know about
safety belts and children. And there are different rules
for smaller children and babies.
If a child will be riding
in your vehicle, see the part of this manual called
“Children.” Follow those rules for everyone’s
protection.
First, you’ll want to know which restraint systems
your vehicle has.
We’ll start with the driver position.
Driver Position
This part describes the driver’s restraint system.
Lap-Shoulder Belt
The driver has a lap-shoulder belt. Here’s how to wear
it properly.
1. Close and lock the door.
2. Adjust the seat (to see how, see “Seats” in the Index)
so you can sit up straight.
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3. Pick up the latch plate and pull the belt across you.
Don’t let it get twisted.
4. Push the latch plate into the buckle until it clicks.
Pull up on the latch plate to make sure it is secure.
If the belt isn’t long enough, see “Safety Belt
Extender” at the end of this section.
Make sure the release button on the buckle is positioned
so you would be able to unbuckle the safety belt quickly
if you ever had to.
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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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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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To unlatch the belt, just push the button on the buckle.
Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for
Children and Small Adults
If your vehicle has a rear seat, your vehicle may have
shoulder belt comfort guides. This feature will provide
added safety belt comfort for children who have
outgrown child restraints and for small adults. When
installed
on a shoulder belt, the comfort guide pulls the
belt away from the neck
and head.
There is one guide for each outside passenger position in
the rear seat.
To provide added safety belt comfort for
children who have outgrown child restraints and for
smaller adults, the comfort guides may be installed on
the shoulder belts. Here’s how to install a comfort guide
and use the safety belt:
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To remove and store the comfort guides, squeeze the
belt edges together
so that you can take them out from
the guides. Slide the guide onto
the storage clip.
Make sure you remove the comfort guide from the belt
before you fold a rear seat down
or use an easy-entry
seat,
if your vehicle has one.
Children
Everyone in a vehicle needs protection! That includes
infants and
all children smaller than adult size. In fact,
the law in every state in the United States and in every
Canadian province says children up to some age must be
restrained while
in a vehicle.
Smaller Children and Babies
/I CAUTION:
Smaller children and babies should always be
restrained in
a child or infant restraint. The
instructions for the restraint will say whether it
is
the right type and size for your child. A very
young child’s hip bones are
so small that a
regular belt might not stay low on the hips, as it
should. Instead, the belt will likely be over the
child’s abdomen.
In a crash, the belt would apply
force right on the child’s abdomen, which could
cause serious or fatal injuries.
So, be sure that
any child small enough for one
is always properly
restrained in a child or infant restraint.
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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
(Except Extended Cab and Crew Cab)
The child restraint must be secured properly in the
center or right front passenger seat. If your vehicle has
air bags and
you want to secure a rear-facing child
restraint in the right front passenger’s seat, you need to
turn
off the passenger’s air bag. See “Securing a Child
Restraint
in the Right Front Seat Position“ in the Index
for more on this, including important safety information.
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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 rear-facing child restraint would be very close to
the inflating air bag. Be sure to turn
off the air
bag before using a rearfacing child restraint in
the right front seat position.
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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