1998 HONDA PRELUDE 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............ 11 3. Adjust the Seat-Backs............. 12
4. Adjust the Head Restraints.... 13 5. Fasten and Position the Seat
Belts...................................... 14

6. Adjust the Steering Wheel..... 15
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 Precaution...... 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.................................. 40

Seat Belt System Components... 40
Lap/Shoulder Belt....................... 40 Seat Belt Maintenance................ 42
Additional Information About Your
SRS............................................

43

SRS Components........................ .
43

How Your Airbags Work............ 43

How Your SRS Indicator Light
Works........................................45

SRS Service................................... 45
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. Airbagssupplement 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 14.)
Restrain All Children Children are safest when they are
properly restrained in the 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 to
occupants 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.
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 alsooccur at lower speeds. Never drive
faster than is safe for current conditions, regardless of the
maximum speed posted.
Keep Your Vehicle in SafeCondition
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 162.)
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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 severe frontal collisions.)
Help keep you from being thrown

against the inside of the car and

against other occupants.

Keep you from being thrown
outside of the car.

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 airbags.

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.
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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 byproviding 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 car 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 haveoutgrown child safety seats, are
wearing their seat belts and
wearing them properly (see page
14).

Any infant or small child is properly restrained in a child seat

in the back seat (see page 19). Front seat occupants are sitting as
far back as possible from the steering wheel and dashboard (see page 11).
Seat-backs are upright (see page
12).
Head restraints are properly
adjusted (see page 13). Both doors are closed and locked
(see page 10). All cargo is properly stored or
secured (see page 128).
The rest of this section gives more detailed information about how you
can maximize your safety.
Remember, however, that no safetysystem can prevent all injuries or
deaths 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 child
seats 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 are closed
and locked.

Your vehicle has a doormonitor light on the
instrument panel to indicate when a specific door 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 outof 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 72 for how to lock the

doors.

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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 car.
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 checkup, ask
your doctor if it's okay for you to drive. Additional Safety Precautions

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, besure 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 andCanadian 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 a seat belt. (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 properly restrained in a child seat.
Larger children should be
properly restrained with a seat

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