2000 HONDA S2000 child seat

This section gives you important
information about how to protect
yourself and your passenger.
It
shows you how to use seat belts
properly.
It explains your Supple­
mental Restraint System. And it tells
you how to properly restrain 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 ...... 12
2. Adjust the Front Seats ............ 12
3. Adjust the Seat-Backs ............. 13
4. Fasten and Position the Seat
Belts ......................................
15
5. Maintain a Proper Sitting
Position ................................. 16
Advice for Pregnant Women ...... 17
Additional Safety Precautions .... 18
Protecting Children ......................... 19
All Children Must Be
Restrained ................................
19
Your Car is Not Recommended
for Child
Passengers ............... 20
The Passenger's Air bag Poses
Serious Risks to Children ....... 20
Additional Safety Precaution ...... 22
Driver and Passenger Safety
General Guidelines for Using
Child Seats ................................
22
Protecting Small Children .......... 26
Protecting Larger Children ........ 29
Additional Information About Your
Seat Belts ..................................
33
Seat Belt System Components ... 33
Lap/Shoulder Belt.. ..................... 33
Seat Belt Maintenance ................ 34
Additional Information About Your
SRS ............................................ 35
SRS Components ......................... 35
How Your Air bags
Work ............ 35
How
the Automatic Seat Belt
Tensioners Work ..................... 37
How
the SRS Indicator Light
Works ........................................ 37
SRS Service ................................... 38
Additional Safety
Precautions .... 38
Carbon Monoxide Hazard .............. 39
Safety Labels ....................................
40
Driver and Passenger Safety 5

Important Safety Precautions
You'll find many safety
recommendations throughout this
section, and throughout this manual.
The recommendations on this page
are the ones we consider to be the
most important.
Always WearY our Seat Belt
A seat belt is your best protection in
all types of collisions. Airbags
supplement seat belts, but airbags
are designed to inflate only
in a
moderate to severe frontal collision.
So even though your car is equipped
with airbags, make sure you and
your passenger always wear your
seat belts, and wear them properly.
(See page
15 ) .
Your Car is Not Recommended
for Child Passengers
Since all children are safest in the
back seat of a car, and your car does
not have a back seat, we recommend
that you
do not carry a child
passenger.
Due to the passenger's
6 Driver and Passenger Safety
airbag hazard, you should never
carry an infant in a rear-facing child
seat in this car. If a small child who
must be restrained in a forward­
facing child seat, or a larger child,
must ride
in this car, be sure to
follow
all instructions and safety
warnings
in this manual. (See pages
26 and 29.)
Be Aware of Airbag Hazards
While airbags can 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
7 .)
Don't Drink and Drive
Alcohol and driving don't mix. Even
one drink can reduce your ability to
respond to changing conditions, and
your 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 also
occur
at lower speeds. Never drive
faster than is safe for current
conditions, regardless of the
maximum speed posted.
Keep Your Car in Safe Condition
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 146
.)

Airbags
Your car has a Supplemental
Restraint System
(SRS) with frontal
airbags to help protect the driver and
a passenger.
~ This system also includes
~ an indicator light on the
instrument panel to alert you to a
possible problem with the system.
The most important things you need
to know about your airbags are:
• Airbags do not replace seat belts.
The seat belts are the occupants'
primary protection in all types of
collisions. Airbags supplement
seat belts
by providing extra
protection for occupants' heads
and chests.
• Airbags offer no protection in side
impacts, rear impacts, rollovers,
or
minor collisions. Air bags are
designed to deploy only during a
moderate to severe frontal
collision.
Your Car's Safety Features
• 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 not
sitting 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 9

Pre-Drive Safety Checklist
To make sure you and your
passenger get the maximum
protection from your car's safety
features, check the following each
time before you drive
away:
• You and any adult passenger, or a
larger child who has outgrown
child seats, are wearing your seat
belts and wearing
them properly
(see page
15 ) .
• A small child riding in a forward­
facing child seat is properly
restrained (see page
26).
• 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 ).
• Both doors are closed and locked
(see page
12 ).
• All cargo is properly stored or
secured (see page 124).
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 air bags deploy.
Your Car's Safety Features
Driver and Passenger Safety 11

Protecting Adults
Introduction
The following pages provide
instructions on how to properly
protect adult occupants.
These instructions also apply to a
child whom you have decided is
large enough and mature enough to
ride as a passenger. (See page
29 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.
12
Driver and Passenger Safety
~ 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
58 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 airbag during a
crash.

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 vehicle.
Remember to keep the lap portion of
the belt as
low as possible across
your hips.
Protecting Adults
Pregnant women should also sit
upright and 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 check-up, ask
your doctor
if it's okay for you to
drive.
Driver and Passenger Safety 17

Children depend on adults to protect
them. However, despite their best
intentions, many parents and other
adults may 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 car, be sure to
read this section.
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. A
larger child should be properly
restrained with a seat belt.
Protecting Children
All Children Must Be Restrained
Each year, many children are injured .
or 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 and
Canadian 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
26 .)
A larger child should always be
restrained with a seat belt. (See page
29 .)
Driver and Passenger Safety 19

Protecting Children
Your Car is Not Recommended
for Child Passengers
We strongly recommend that you do
not carry any child in this car.
One reason is that your car does not
have a back seat, and accident
statistics show that a child of any
size or age is safer when they are
properly restrained
in the back seat
of a vehicle.
In addition, your car
has a passenger's
air bag which poses serious risks to
children-particularly infants and
small children.
20 Driver and Passenger Safety
The Passenger's Airbag Poses
Serious Risks to Children
Airbags have been designed to help
protect adults
in a moderate to
severe frontal collision. To
do this,
the passenger's airbag is quite large,
and it inflates with tremendous
speed.
As a result, we urge you to follow
these guidelines.
Infants
Never put a rear-facing child seat in
the front seat of a car equipped with
a
passenger's airbag. If the air bag
inflates, it can hit the back of the
child seat with enough force to kill or
very seriously injure an infant.
Small Children
Placing a
f01ward-facing child seat in
the front seat of a car equipped with
a
passenger's airbag can be
hazardous. If the vehicle seat is too
far forward, or the child's head is
thrown forward during a collision, an
inflating airbag can strike the child
with enough force to kill or very
seriously injure a small child.
If a
small child must ride
in this car,
follow the instructions on page
23 .
Larger Children
Children who
have outgrown child
seats are also at risk of being injured
or killed by an inflating passenger's
airbag. If a larger child must ride in
this car, see page 29 for important
guidelines on how to decide whether
a child is large enough and mature
enough to ride as a passenger, and
how to properly protect the child.