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Section 1 Seats and Restraint Systems
Here you’ll find information about the seats in your Oldsmobile and how to use your safety belts properly. You can
also learn about some things you should
not do with air bags and safety belts.
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1-28 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 Restraint System (SRS)
Rear Seat Passengers 1-32
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1-53 Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides
for Children and Small Adults
Center Passenger Position
Children
Child Restraints
Larger Children
Safety Belt Extender
Checking Your Restraint Systems
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.
3. Pick up the latch plate and pull the belt across you.
4. Push the latch plate into the buckle until it clicks.
Don’t
let it get
twisted.
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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.
~
‘
A CAUTION:
Children who are up against, or very close to, an
air bag when it inflates can be seriously injured
or killed. Air bags plus lap-shoulder belts offer
the best protection for adults and older children,
but not for young children and infants. Neither
the vehicle’s safety belt system nor its air bag
system is designed for them. Young children and
infants need the protection that
a child restraint
system can provide. Always secure children
properly in your vehicle.
To read how, see the
part
of this manual called “Children” and see the
caution labels on the sunvisors and the right front
passenger’s safety belt.
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Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for
Children and Small Adults
Rear shoulder belt comfort guides 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:
1. Pull the elastic cord out from between the edge of
the seatback and the interior body to remove the
guide from its storage clip.
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Children
Everyone in a vehicle needs protection! That includes
infants and all children smaller than adult size. Neither
the distance traveled nor the age and size
of the traveler
changes the need, for everyone,
to use safety restraints.
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
A 4UTIC X:
Children who are up against, or very close to, an
air bag when it inflates can be seriously injured
or killed. Air bags plus lap-shoulder belts offer
the best protection for adults and older children,
but not for young children and infants. Neither the vehicle’s safety belt system nor its air bag
system is designed for them. Young children and
infants need the protection that
a child restraint
system can provide. Always secure children
properly in your vehicle.
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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.
Infants need complete support, including support for
the head and neck. This is necessary because an infant’s
neck is weak and its head weighs
so much compared
with the rest of its body. In a crash, an infant in a
rear-facing restraint settles into the restraint,
so the
crash forces can be distributed across the strongest
part
of the infant’s body, the back and shoulders. A baby
should be secured in an appropriate infant restraint.
This is
so important that many hospitals today won’t
release a newborn infant to its parents unless there is an
infant restraint available for the baby’s first trip in a
motor vehicle.
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Child Restraints
Every time infants and young children ride in
vehicles, they should have protection provided by
appropriate restraints.
@ What are the different types of add-on
A: Add-on child restraints are available in four basic
types. When selecting a child restraint, take into
consideration not only the child’s weight and size,
but also whether or not the restraint will be
compatible with the motor vehicle in which it
will
be used.
child restraints?
An infant car bed (A) is a special bed made for use
in a motor vehicle. It’s an infant restraint system
designed to restrain or position a child on a
continuous flat surface. With an infant car bed,
make sure that the infant’s head rests toward the
center of the vehicle.
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A forward-facing child restraint (C-E) positions a
child upright to face forward in the vehicle.
These
forward-facing restraints are designed to help protect
children who are
from 20 to 40 lbs. (9 to 18 kg) and
about 26 to 40 inches (66 to 102 cm) in height, or up
to around four years of age. One type, a convertible
restraint, is designed to be used either as
a rear-facing
infant seat or
a forward-facing child seat.
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