1999 HONDA CIVIC COUPE Owners Manual

Protecting Children

If You Must Drive with Several
Children
Your car has three seating positions in the back seat where children can
be properly restrained.
If you ever have to carry more than
three children in your car: Place the largest child in the front
seat, provided the child is large
enough to wear a seat belt
properly (see page 37). Move the vehicle seat as far to the
rear as possible (see page 12). Have the child sit upright and well
back in the seat (see page 18). Make sure the seat belt is properly
positioned and secured (see page 15). 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 the child to hazards from
the airbag, and paying close attention to a child distracts the
driver from the important tasks of
driving, placing both of you at risk.
If a child requires physical attention
or frequent visual contact, westrongly recommend that another
adult ride with the child in the back seat. The back seat is far safer for a
child than the front. Additional Safety Precaution
Do not leave children alone in your

vehicle. Leaving children without

adult supervision is illegal in most
states and provinces, 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

General Guidelines for Using
Child Seats
The following pages give general guidelines for selecting and installing
child seats for infants and smallchildren.
Selecting a Child Seat
To provide proper protection, a child seat should meet three
requirements:

1. The child seat should meet safety
standards. The child seat should
meet Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standard 213 (FMVSS 213)
or Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety
Standard 213 (CMVSS 213). Look
for the manufacturer's statement of compliance on the box and seat.

2. The child seat should be of the
proper type and size to fit the child.
Infants: Children up to about one
year old should be restrained in a rear-facing, reclining child seat. Only
a rear-facing seat provides the
proper support to protect an infant's
head, neck, and back. See page 29 for additional information on
protecting infants. Small Children: A child who is too
large for a rear-facing child seat, and
who can sit up without support, should be restrained in a forward-
facing child seat. See page 33 for additional information on protecting
small children.

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Protecting Children

3. The child seat should fit the vehicle seating position (or
positions) where it will be used.
Due to variations in the design of
child seats, vehicle seats, and seat

belts, all child seats will not fit all
vehicle seating positions.

However, Honda is confident that
one or more child seat models can fitand be properly installed in all

recommended seating positions in

your car. Before purchasing a child seat, we
recommend that parents test thechild seat in the specific vehicleseating position (or positions) where
they intend to use the seat. If a previously purchased child seat does
not fit, you may need to buy a different one that will fit.
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Protecting Children

Placing a Child Seat
This page briefly summarizes Honda's recommendations on where
to place rear-facing and forward-
facing child seats in your car.
Front Passenger's Seat

Infants: Never in the front seat, due
to the passenger's airbag hazard.

Small children: Not recommended,
due to the passenger's airbag
hazard. If a small child must ride in front, move the vehicle seat to
the rear-most position and secure a front-facing child seat with theseat belt, (see page 34).
Back Seats
Infants: Recommended positions.
Secure a rear-facing child seat
with the seat belt, (see page 30).

Small children: Recommended
positions. Secure a front-facingchild seat with the seat belt, (see
page 34).
Driver and Passenger Safety
Airbags Pose Serious
Risks to Children
The passenger's airbag inflates with enough force to kill orseriously injure an infant in a
rear-facing child seat.
A small child in a forward-facing child seat is also at risk. If the
vehicle seat is too far forward, or the child's head is thrown
forward during a collision, an
inflating airbag can kill or seriously injure the child.
If a small child must ride in the
front, follow the instructions provided.
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Protecting Children

Installing a Child Seat

After selecting a proper child seat, and a good position to install the seat,
there are three main steps in installing the seat:1. Secure the child seat to the car
with a seat belt.
All child seats
must be
secured to the car with
the lap belt or the lap part of a lap/ shoulder belt. A child whose seat
is not properly secured to the car can be endangered in a crash. See
pages 28 and 32 for instructions on
how to secure child seats in this car.
2. Make sure the child seat is firmly
secured
.. After installing a child
seat, pus h
and pull the seat
forward and from side to side to
verify that it is secure. To provide security during normal
driving maneuvers as well as during
a collision, we recommend that
parents secure a child seat as firmly
as possible.
However, a child seat does not need
to be "rock solid." In some vehicles or seating positions, it may be
difficult to install a child seat so that
it does not move at all. Some side-to-side or back-and-forth movement can
be expected and should not reduce the child seat's effectiveness.
If the child seat is not secure, try
installing it in a different seating
position, or use a different style ofchild seat that can be firmly secured
in the desired seating position. 3. Secure the child in the child seat.
Make sure the child is properlystrapped in the child seat
according to the child seat maker's
instructions. A child who is not
properly secured in a child seat
can be thrown out of the seat in a crash and seriously injured.
Storing a Child Seat
When you are not using a child seat, either remove it and store it in a safe
place, or make sure it is properly secured. An unsecured child seat can
be thrown around the car during a crash or sudden stop and injure
someone.

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Protecting Children

Protecting Infants

Child Seat Type

Only a rear-facing child seat provides
proper support for a baby's head, neck, and back. Infants up to about
one year of age must be restrained in
a rear-facing child seat.
Two types of seats may be used: a seat designed exclusively for infants,
or a convertible seat used in the rear-
facing, reclining mode. We recommend that an infant be
restrained in a rear-facing child seat
until the infant reaches the seat
maker's weight or height limit and isable to sit up without support.
Rear-Facing Child Seat Placement

In this car, a rear-facing child seat
can be placed in any seating position
in the back seat, but not in the front
seat.

Never put a rear-facing child seat in
the front seat. If the passenger's
airbag inflates, it can hit the back of
the child seat with enough force to
kill or seriously injure an infant. If an infant must be closely watched, we
recommend that another adult sit in
the back seat with the baby.

Do not put a rear-facing child seat in

a forward-facing position. If placed

facing forward, an infant could be
very seriously injured during a
frontal collision.

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Driver and Passenger Safety

Placing a rear-facing child seat
in the front seat can result in
serious injury or death if the airbags inflate.
Always place a rear-facing child seat in the back seat, not the

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Protecting Children

Installing a Rear-Facing Child Seatwith 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 on how to secure a rear-
facing child seat with this type of seat belt. See page 32 for how to secure a rear-
facing child seat in the center back seat with the lap belt.
For tips on installing a rear-facing
child seat with a seat belt, see page
32.

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 theretractor (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 thelap 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 drivingmaneuvers. If the child seat is not
secure, unlatch the belt, allow it to
retract fully, then repeat these

steps.

To deactivate the locking mechanism and remove a child seat,
unlatch the buckle, unroute the seat
belt, and let the belt fully retract.
Driver and Passenger Safety
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