2000 Acura TL child lock

Driver and Passenger Safety
This section gives you importantinformation 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 car.
Important Safety Precautions ........6
Your Car's Safety Features ........... 7
Seat Belts ............................ 8
Airbags .....................................9
Seats & Seat-Backs .....................10
Head Restraints .......................10
Door Locks 10
Pre-Drive Safety Checklist.........11
Protecting Adults .........................12 1. Close and Lock the Doors...... 122. Adjust the Front Seats..........12
3. Adjust the Seat-Backs.......... 13
4. Adjust the Head Restraints.... 14
5. Fasten and Position the Seat Belts ................................ 15
6. Adjust the Steering Wheel..... 17
7. Maintain a Proper Sitting Position............................. 17
Advice for Pregnant Women..... 18
Additional Safety Precautions.... 19
Protecting Children.......................20
All Children Must Be Restrained............................ 20
Children Should Sit in the Back
Seat........................................... 21
The Passenger's Front Airbag
Poses Serious Risks
to Children......................... 21
If You Must Drive with Several Children................................ 23
If a Child Requires Close
Attention............................. 23
Additional Safety Precautions.... 23 General Guidelines for Using
Child Seats........................... 24
Protecting Infants......................28 Protecting Small Children...........32
Protecting Larger Children........35
Using Child Seats with
Tethers...................................39
Additional Information About Your Seat Belts..................................40
Seat Belt System Components... 40
Lap/Shoulder Belt..................... 40
Seat Belt Maintenance.............. 42
Additional Information About Your Front Airbags........................ 43
SRS Components...................... 43
How Your Front Airbags
Work...................................43
How the SRS Indicator Light
Works................................... 45
Additional Information About Your Side Airbags.......................... 46
How Your Side Airbags Work.... 46
How The Side Airbag Indicator
Light Works......................... 47
Airbag Service........................... 48
Additional Safety Precautions..... 48
Carbon Monoxide Hazard..............49
Safety Labels.................................50
Driver and Passenger Safety

Your Car's Safety Features
Pre-Drive Safety Checklist
To make sure you and your passengers get the maximum
protection from your car'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
15).
• Any infant or small child is properly restrained in a child seatin the back seat (see page 20). • Front seat occupants are sitting
upright and as far back as possible
from the steering wheel and dashboard (see page 12).
• Seat-backs are upright (see page 13).
• Head restraints are properly adjusted (see page 14).
• All doors are closed and locked (see page 12).
• All cargo is properly stored or secured (see page 155). 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 or
deaths that can occur in severe
crashes, even when seat belts are
properly worn and the airbags deploy.
Driver and Passenger Safety

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 car, be sure the doors are closed and
locked. Your car has a door monitor light on
the instrument panel to indicate
when a specific door is not tightly closed.
For safety, locking the doors reduces
the chance that a passenger, especially a child, will open a door
while the car is moving and accidentally fall out. It also reduces
the chance of someone being thrown out of the car during a crash.
For security, locked doors can
prevent an outsider from
unexpectedly opening a door when
you come to a stop.
See page 77 for how to lock the
doors. 2.Adjust the Front Seats
Any driver who sits too close to the steering wheel is at risk of being
seriously injured or killed by striking
the steering wheel or from being struck by an inflating front airbag
during a crash.
Driver and Passenger Safety

Protecting Children
If You Must Drive with SeveralChildren
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 35).
• 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 16).
• 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 passenger's front airbag, and paying close attention to a childdistracts the driver from the
important tasks of driving, placing
both of you at risk.
If a child requires physical attentionor frequent visual contact, we
strongly recommend that another
adult ride with the child in the backseat. The back seat is far safer for a
child than the front.Additional Safety Precautions
• Use childproof door locks to prevent children from opening thedoors. Using this feature will
prevent children from opening the
doors and accidentally falling out (see page 81 ).
• Use the main power window switch to prevent children from
opening the rear windows. Using
this feature will prevent children
from playing with the windows,
which could expose them to hazards or distract the driver (see
page 96 ).
CONTINUED
Driver and Passenger Safety

Protecting Children
Rear-Facing Child Seat Installation
The lap/shoulder belts in the backseats have a locking mechanism that
must be activated to secure a child seat.
The following pages provide instructions and tips on how tosecure a rear-facing child seat with
this type of seat belt.
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. 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 the
retractor (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.
CONTINUED
Driver and Passenger Safety

Protecting Children
4. After confirming that the belt islocked, grab the shoulder part of
the belt near the buckle and pull
up to remove any slack from the
lap 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 driving
maneuvers. 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

Protecting Children
Rear-Facing Child Seat Installation
Tips
For proper protection, an infant must
ride in a reclined, or semi-reclined
position. To determine the proper
reclining angle, check with the baby's doctor or follow the seat maker's
recommendations.
To achieve the desired reclining angle, it may help to put a rolled up
towel under the toe of the child seat, as shown. When properly installed, a rear-
facing child seat may prevent the driver or a front-seat passenger from
moving the seat as far back as
recommended (see page 12). Or it may prevent them from locking the seat-back in the desired upright
position (see page 13).
In either case, we recommend that
you place the child seat directly behind the front passenger seat,move the front seat as far forward as
needed, and leave it unoccupied. Or
you may wish to get a smaller child seat that allows you to safely carry a
front passenger. Additional Precautions for Infants
• Never hold an infant on your lap.
If you are not wearing a seat belt
in a crash, you could be thrown
forward into the dashboard and crush the infant.
If you are wearing a seat belt, theinfant can be torn from your arms
during a crash. For example, if
your car crashes into a parked
vehicle at 30 mph (48 km/h), a 20-lb (9 kg) infant will become a
600-lb (275 kg) force, and you will
not be able to hold on.
• Never put a seat belt over yourself and an infant. During a crash, the
belt could press deep into the
infant and cause very serious
injuries.
Driver and Passenger Safety

Protecting Children
Child Seat Installation
The lap/shoulder belts in the backand front passenger seating positions
have a locking mechanism that must
be activated to secure a child seat.
The following pages provide instructions and tips on how tosecure a forward-facing child seat
with this type of seat belt.
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. 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 the retractor (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.
CONTINUED
Driver and Passenger Safety