1998 OLDSMOBILE INTRIGUE Owners Manual

What's wrong with this? You can be seriously injured by a twisted belt. In
a crash, you wouldn't have the full width of the
belt to spread impact forces. If a belt is twisted,
make it straight
so it can work properly, or ask
your retailer to
fix it.
A: The belt is twisted across the body.
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Safety belts work for everyone, including pregnant
women. Like all occupants, they are more likely to be
seriously injured if they don’t wear safety belts.
Safety Belt Use During Pregnancy
To unlatch the belt, just push the button on the buckle.
The belt should go back out of the way.
Before you close the door, be sure the belt is out of the
way.
If you slam the door on it, you can damage both
the belt and your vehicle.
A pregnant woman should wear a lap-shoulder belt, and
the lap portion should be worn as low as possible, below
the rounding, throughout the pregnancy.
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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
To learn how to wear the right front passenger’s safety
belt properly, see “Driver Position’’ earlier in this section.
The right front passenger’s safety belt works the same
way as the driver’s safety belt
-- except for one thing. If
you ever pull the shoulder portion of the belt out all the
way, you will engage the child restraint locking feature.
If this happens, just let the belt go back all the way and
start again.
Supplemental Restraint System (SRS)
This part explains the Supplemental Restraint System
(SRS) or air bag system.
Your vehicle has two air bags
-- one air bag for the
driver
and another air bag for the right front passenger.
The air bags in your vehicle may be “Next Generation”
reduced-force frontal air bags.
If your vehicle has a label on the driver’s side door
window, then your vehicle has reduced-force frontal air
bags.
If your vehicle doesn’t have a label, then the air
bags
in your vehicle aren’t reduced-force.
Reduced-force frontal air bags are designed to help
reduce the risk of injury from the force
of an inflating
air bag. But even these air bags must inflate very
quickly if they are to
do their job and comply with
federal regulations.
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~‘=’c~ ~ ~ . _c. - . .., . .- .~ .- . -. -~
4
Here are the most important things to know about the
air bag system:
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
-- even
reduced-force
air bags -- are designed to
work with safety belts, but don’t 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.
And, for unrestrained occupants, reduced-force
air bags may provide less protection in frontal
crashes than more forceful air bags have provided
in the past. 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. This
is true
even with reduced-force frontal
air bags. Safety
belts help keep you in position before and during
a crash. Always wear your safety belt, even with
reduced-force air bags. The driver should sit as
far back
as possible while still maintaining
control
of the vehicle.
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/I CAU’JON:
Children who are up against, or very close to, an
air bag when it inflates can be seriously injured
or killed. This is true even
if your vehicle has
reduced-force frontal air bags. Air bags plus
lap-shoulder belts offer the best protection for
adults, 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.
There is an air bag
readiness light on the
instrument panel, which
shows an
air bag symbol.
I I
The system checks the air bag electrical system
for malfunctions. The light tells you if there is an
electrical problem. See
“Air Bag Readiness Light”
in the Index for more information.
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How the Air Bag System Works
1
Where are the air bags?
The driver’s air bag is in the middle of the
steering wheel. The right front passenger’s air
bag is in the instrument
panel
on the passenger’s side.
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If something is between an occupant and an air
bag, the bag might not inflate properly or it
might force the object into that person. The pat
of an inflating air bag must be kept clear. Don?
put anything between an occupant and an air
bag, and don’t attach or put anything on the
steering wheel hub or on or near any other air
bag covering. ;h t
When should
an air bag inflate?
An air bag is designed to inflate in a moderate to severe
frontal or near-frontal crash. The air bag will inflate
only if the impact speed is above the system’s designed
“threshold level.” If your vehicle goes straight into a
wall that doesn’t move or deform, the threshold level is
about
9 to 15 mph (14 to 24 km/h). The threshold level
can vary, however, with specific vehicle design,
so that it can
be somewhat above or below this range.
If your
vehicle strikes something that will move or deform,
such as a parked car, the threshold level will be higher.
The air bag is not designed to inflate in rollovers, side
impacts or rear impacts, because inflation would not
help the occupant.
In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air
bag should have inflated simply because
of the damage
to a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were.
Inflation is determined by the angle of the impact and
how quickly the vehicle slows down in frontal or
near-frontal impacts.
What makes an air bag inflate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing
system detects that the vehicle
is in a crash. The sensing
system triggers a release of gas from the inflator, which
inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag and related
hardware are all part of the air bag modules inside the
steering wheel and in the instrument panel in front of
the right front passenger.
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How does an air bag restrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel
or the instrument panel. Air bags supplement the
protection provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute
the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant’s
upper body, stopping the occupant more gradually.
But air bags would not help you in many types of
collisions, including rollovers, rear impacts and side
impacts, primarily because an occupant’s motion is
not toward those air bags. Air bags should never be
regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety
belts, and then only in moderate to severe frontal or
near-frontal collisions.
What will you see after an air bag inflates?
After an air bag inflates, it quickly deflates, so
quickly that some people may not even realize the
air bag inflated. Some components of the air bag
module
-- the steering wheel hub for the driver’s
air bag, or the instrument panel for the right front
passenger’s bag
-- will be hot for a short time. The
parts of the bag that come into contact with you may be
warm, but not too hot to touch. There will be some
smoke and dust coming from vents in the deflated air
bags. Air bag inflation doesn’t prevent the driver from seeing or from being able to steer
the vehicle, nor does
it stop people from leaving the vehicle.
When an air bag inflates, there is dust in the air.
This dust could cause breathing problems for
people with a history
of asthma or other
breathing trouble.
To avoid this, everyone in the
vehicle should get out as soon
as it is safe to do so.
If you have breathing problems but can’t get out
of the vehicle after an air bag inflates, then get
fresh air by opening a window or door.
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