1998 HONDA ODYSSEY child lock

Driver and Passenger Safety

This section gives you important information about how to protect

yourself and your passengers. It
shows you how to use seat belts

properly. It explains your Supple-

mental Restraint System. And it tells

you how to properly restrain infants
and children in your vehicle.

Important Safety Precautions .......... 4

Your Vehicle's Safety Features........ 5
Seat Belts........................................ 6
Airbags............................................ 7

Seats & Seat-Backs........................ 8
Head Restraints............................. 8
Door Locks..................................... 9
Pre-Drive Safety Checklist........... 9
Protecting Adults............................. 10 1. Close and Lock the Doors...... 10
2. Adjust the Front Seats............ 10
3. Adjust the Seat-Backs............. 11
4. Adjust the Head Restraints.... 12
5. Fasten and Position the Seat
Belts...................................... 13

6. Adjust the Steering Wheel..... 16

7. Maintain a Proper Sitting
Position................................. 16
Advice for Pregnant Women...... 17
Additional Safety Precautions.... 17
Protecting Children......................... 19
All Children Must Be Restrained................................ 19
Children Should Sit in the Back
Seat............................................ 20

The Passenger's Airbag Poses Serious Risks to Children....... 20
If You Must Drive with Several Children.................................... 21 If a Child Requires Close

Attention................................... 22

Additional Safety Precautions.... 22
General Guidelines for Using
Child Seats................................ 23

Protecting Infants........................ 27
Protecting Small Children.......... 31
Protecting Larger Children........ 35 Using Child Seats with Tethers...................................... 38
Additional Information About Your Seat Belts.................................. 41
Seat Belt System Components... 41
Lap/Shoulder Belt....................... 41
Lap Belt......................................... 42
Seat Belt Maintenance................ 42
Additional Information About Your

SRS........................................... 44

SRS Components......................... 44

How Your Airbags Work............ 44
How Your SRS Indicator Light

Works........................................ 45

SRS Service................................... 46

Additional Safety Precautions.... 46

Carbon Monoxide Hazard.............. 47

Safety Labels.................................... 48

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Your Vehicle's Safety Features
Door Locks
Keeping your doors locked reduces
the chance of being thrown out of
the vehicle during a crash. It also
helps prevent occupants from accidentally opening a door and
falling out, and outsiders from unexpectedly opening your doors.
Pre-Drive Safety Checklist

To make sure you and your passengers get the maximum
protection from your vehicle's safety
features, check the following each
time before you drive away: All adults, and children who have
outgrown child safety seats, are
wearing their seat belts and
wearing them properly (see page
13).
Any infant or small child is
properly restrained in a child seat
in a back seat (see page 19 ). Front seat occupants are sitting as
far back as possible from the steering wheel and dashboard (see page 10). Seat-backs are upright (see page

11).
Head restraints are properly
adjusted (see page 12 ). All doors and the tailgate are
closed and locked (see page 10). All cargo is properly stored or
secured (see page 136).
The rest of this section gives more detailed information about how you
can maximize your safety.
Remember, however, that no safety system can prevent all injuries ordeaths that can occur in severe
crashes, even when seat belts are
properly worn and the airbags deploy.

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Protecting Adults

Introduction
The following pages provide instructions on how to properly
protect the driver and other adult
occupants.

These instructions also apply to children who have outgrown childseats and are large enough to wear
lap/shoulder belts. (See page 35 for
important additional guidelines on
how to properly protect larger children.)
1.Close and Lock the Doors After everyone has entered the
vehicle, be sure the doors and
tailgate are closed and locked.
Your vehicle has a door and tailgate
monitor light on the instrument
panel to indicate when a specific
door or the tailgate is not tightly

closed.

For safety, locking the doors reduces
the chance of a passenger, especially a child, opening a door while the
vehicle is moving and accidentally
falling out. It also reduces the chance of someone being thrown out
of the vehicle during a crash.
For security, locked doors can
prevent an outsider from
unexpectedly opening a door when
you come to a stop.
See page 70 for how to lock the
doors.
2.Adjust the Front Seats
Any driver who sits too close to thesteering wheel is at risk of being
seriously injured or killed by striking
the steering wheel or being struck by an inflating airbag during a crash.
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Protecting Adults

Advice for Pregnant Women
Because protecting the mother is the
best way to protect her unborn child, a pregnant woman should always
wear a seat belt whenever she drives or rides in a vehicle.
We recommend that pregnant women use a lap/shoulder belt
whenever possible. Remember to keep the lap portion of the belt as
low as possible across your hips. Pregnant women should also sit as
far back as possible from the steering wheel or dashboard. This
will reduce the risk of injuries to
both the mother and her unborn child that can be caused by a crash
or an inflating airbag. Each time you have a check-up, ask
your doctor if it's okay for you to drive.
Additional Safety Precautions
Never let passengers ride in the

cargo area or on top of a folded-
down back seat. All passengers

must sit in locked, upright seats
and be properly restrained by seat
belts.
Passengers should not stand up or
change seats while the vehicle is

moving. A passenger who is not
wearing a seat belt during a crash or emergency stop can be thrown
against the inside of the vehicle, against other occupants, or out of
the vehicle.
Two people should never use the

same seat belt. If they do, they
could be very seriously injured in a
crash.

Do not put any accessories on seat
belts. Devices intended to improve
occupant comfort, or reposition
the shoulder part of a seat belt,
can severely compromise the
protective capability of seat belts
and increase the chance of serious injury in a crash.

CONTINUED

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Protecting Children

If a Child Requires Close
Attention
Many parents say they prefer to put
an infant or small child in the front
passenger seat so they can watch the child, or because the child requires

attention.

Placing a child in the front seat
exposes them to hazards from the
airbag, and paying close attention to
a child distracts the driver from the
important tasks of driving, creating serious safety risks.
If a child requires physical attention
or frequent visual contact, westrongly recommend that another
adult ride with the child in a back seat. A back seat is far safer for a
child than the front. Additional Safety Precautions
Use childproof door locks to
prevent children from opening the
doors. Using this feature will

prevent children from opening the doors and accidentally falling out (see page 72 ).

Use the main power window
switch to prevent children from opening the rear windows. Using

this feature will prevent children
from playing with the windows,
which could expose them to
hazards or distract the driver (see
page 82 ). Do not leave children alone in your

vehicle. Leaving children without

adult supervision is illegal in most states and can be very hazardous.
For example, infants and small
children left in a vehicle on a hot day can die from heatstroke. And
children left alone with the key in
the ignition can accidentally set
the vehicle in motion, possibly
injuring themselves or others.
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Protecting Children

Installing an Infant Seat With a Lap/
Shoulder Belt

The lap/shoulder belts in the outer back seats have a locking mechanism that must be activated tosecure a child seat.
The following pages provide instructions and tips on how tosecure a rear-facing child seat with
this type of seat belt. See page 30 for how to secure a rear-
facing child seat with the lap belt.
1. With the child seat in the desiredback seating position, route the
belt through the child seataccording to the seat maker's
instructions, then insert the latch
plate into the buckle.

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Protecting Children

2. To activate the lockable retractor, slowly pull the shoulder part of the
belt all the way out until it stops,
then let the belt feed back into the
retractor (you might hear a
clicking noise as the belt retracts).
3. After the belt has retracted, tug on it. If the belt is locked, you will not
be able to pull it out. If you can pull
the belt out, it is not locked and
you will need to repeat these steps. 4. After confirming that the belt is
locked, grab the shoulder part of
the belt near the buckle and pull
up to remove any slack from the
lap part of the belt. Remember, if
the lap part of the belt is not tight,
the child seat will not be secure.
To remove slack, it may help to put weight on the child seat, or
push on the back of the seat while pulling up on the belt.
5. Push and pull the child seat
forward and from side to side to
verify that it is secure enough to
stay upright during normal driving

maneuvers. If the child seat is not

secure, unlatch the belt, allow it to

retract fully, then repeat these
steps.

To deactivate the locking mechanism in order to remove a

child seat, unlatch the buckle,

unroute the seat belt, and let the belt

fully retract.

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Protecting Children

Installing an Infant Seat With the

Lap Belt

Seven-passenger model only
To install a rear-facing child seat with the lap belt, follow instructionnumber 1 on page 28 for routing and
latching the seat belt. Then pull hard
on the loose end of the belt to
remove any slack (it may help to put
weight on the child seat while pulling on the belt). Finally, follow
instruction number 5 of page 29 to
verify that the child seat is secure. Infant Seat Installation Tips
For proper protection, an infant must ride in a reclined, or semi-reclined
position. To determine the proper
reclining angle, check with the baby's doctor or follow the seat maker's
recommendations.
To achieve the desired reclining angle, it may help to put a rolled up
towel under the toe of the child seat,
as shown above. When properly installed a rear-facing
child seat may prevent the driver or
a front-seat passenger from moving
their seat as far back as
recommended (see page 10 ). Or it
may prevent them from locking theirseat-back in the desired upright
position (see page 11).
In either case, we recommend that
you place the child seat in another
back seating position, or leave the affected seat unoccupied. If the
problem cannot be solved, you may
wish to get a smaller rear-facing child seat.
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