1998 HONDA ODYSSEY child seat

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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Important Safety Precautions

You'll find many safety recommendations throughout thissection, and throughout this manual.
Following are a few
recommendations we consider most
important.
Always Wear Your Seat Belt A seat belt is your best protection in all types of collisions. Airbags
supplement seat belts, but airbags
are designed to inflate only in a
severe frontal collision. So even with
airbags, make sure you and your
passengers always wear your seat
belts, and wear them properly. (See
page 13.)
Restrain All Children
Children are safest when they are
properly restrained in a back seat, not the front seat. A child who is too
small for a seat belt must be properly
restrained in a child safety seat. (See
page 19.) Be Aware of Airbag Hazards
While airbags save lives, they can cause serious or fatal injuries tooccupants who sit too close to them,
or are not properly restrained.
Infants, young children, and short
adults are at the greatest risk. Be
sure to follow all instructions and
warnings in this manual. (See page 5.)

Don't Drink and Drive

Alcohol and driving don't mix. Even one drink can reduce your ability to
respond to changing conditions and
your reaction time gets worse with every additional drink. So don't drink
and drive, and don't let your friends drink and drive, either. Control Your Speed
Excessive speed is a major factor in
crash injuries and deaths. Generally,
the higher the speed the greater the
risk, but serious accidents can also occur at lower speeds. Never drive
faster than is safe for current conditions, regardless of the
maximum speed posted.
Keep Your Vehicle in Safe
Condition
Having a tire blowout or a
mechanical failure can be extremely
hazardous. To reduce the possibility of such problems, check your tire
pressures and condition frequently, and perform all regularly scheduled
maintenance. (See page 164.)
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Your Vehicle's Safety Features
Seat Belts
For your safety, and the safety of
your passengers, your vehicle is equipped with seat belts in all seating
positions.
Your seat belt system alsoincludes a light on the
instrument panel to remind you and
your passengers to fasten your seat belts.
Why Wear Seat Belts
Seat belts are the single most
effective safety device for adults and
larger children. (Infants and smaller children must be properly restrained
in child seats.)
Not wearing a seat belt properly
increases the chance of serious
injury or death in a crash, even
though your vehicle has airbags. In addition, most states and all
Canadian provinces require you to
wear seat belts.
When properly worn, seat belts: Keep you connected to the vehicle
so you can take advantage of the
vehicle's built-in safety features. Help protect you in almost every
type of crash, including side and rear impacts and rollovers. (Your
airbags can only be helpful in a
severe frontal collision.)
Help keep you from being thrown

against the inside of the vehicle

and against other occupants.

Keep you from being thrown

outside of the vehicle.

Help keep you in a good position

should the airbags ever deploy. A

good position reduces the risk of
injury from an inflating airbag, and

allows you to get the best
advantage from the airbag.

Of course, seat belts cannot

completely protect you in every

crash. But in most cases, seat belts

can reduce your risk of serious

injury.

What you should do: Always wear

your seat belt, and make sure you
wear it properly.

Driver and Passenger Safety
Not wearing a seat belt properly
increases the chance of serious
injury or death in a crash, even if you have airbags.
Be sure you and your
passengers always wear seat belts and wear them properly.ProCarManuals.comMain Menu Table of Contents s t

Your Vehicle's Safety Features

Airbags
Your vehicle has a Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) with frontal
airbags to help protect the driver and
a front seat passenger.
This system also includesan indicator light on the
instrument panel to alert you to a
possible problem with the system. Following are the most important
things you need to know about your
airbags:
Airbags do not replace seat belts.
They supplement seat belts by providing extra protection for the
heads and chests of front seat

occupants.

Airbags offer no protection in side impacts, rear impacts, rollovers,or minor or moderate collisions.
Airbags are designed to deploy only during a severe frontal
collision (such as a 25 mph [40
km/h] crash into a parked vehicle of similar size and weight). Airbags can pose serious hazards.
To do their job, airbags must inflate with tremendous force and
speed. So while airbags save lives,
they can cause serious injuries to
adults and larger children who are
not wearing seat belts, are not wearing them properly, are sitting
too close to the airbag, or are notsitting in a proper position. Infants
and small children are at an even
greater risk of injury or death.

What you should do: Always wear

your seat belt properly and sit upright and as far back as possible
from the steering wheel or dashboard.

Driver and Passenger Safety
SRS
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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

Children depend on adults to protect
them. However, despite their best
intentions, many parents and other adults do not know how to properly
protect young passengers.
So if you have children, or if you ever
need to drive with a grandchild or
other children in your vehicle, be
sure to read this section. All Children Must Be Restrained
Each year, many children are injuredor killed in vehicle crashes because
they are either unrestrained or not
properly restrained. In fact, vehicle accidents are the number one cause
of death of children ages 12 and
under.
To reduce the number of child deaths and injuries, every state and
Canadian province requires that
infants and children be restrained
whenever they ride in a vehicle.

Any child who is too small to wear a seat belt should be properly

restrained in a child seat. (See page
23.)
Larger children should always be restrained with seat belts. (See page 35.)

Driver and Passenger Safety

Children who are unrestrained
or improperly restrained can be
seriously injured or killed in a
crash.
Any child too small for a seat
belt should be properlyrestrained in a child seat.
Larger children should be
properly restrained with seat
belts.ProCarManuals.comMain Menu Table of Contents s t