2001 Acura RL 3.5 Owner's Manual

Important Safety Precautions
You'll find many safely recommendations throughout this
section, and throughout this manual.
The recommendations on this page are the ones we consider to be the
most important.
Always Wear Your 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 passengers always wear your seat belts, and wear them properly. (See page 15.)
Restrain All Children Children are safest when they are
properly restrained in the back seat,
not the front seat. A child who is too small for a seat belt must be properly
restrained in a child safety seat. (See
page 20.) 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. Besure to follow all instructions and
warnings in this manual. (See page 9.)

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 alsooccur 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 amechanical 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 206.)

Driver and Passenger Safety

Your Car's Safety Features

(1) Safety Cage
(2) Crush Zones
(3) Seats & Seat-Backs
(4) Head Restraints
(5) Collapsible Steering Column
(6) Seat Belts
(7) Front Airbags
(8) Side Airbags
(9) Seat Belt Tensioners
(10) Door Locks Your car is equipped with many
features that work together toprotect you and your passengersduring a crash.
Some safety features do not require
any action on your part. These
include a strong steel framework
that forms a safety cage around the passenger compartment; front and
rear crush zones that are designed to
crumple and absorb energy during a
crash; a collapsible steering column;
and seat belt tensioners that
automatically tighten the front seat
belts in the event of a crash.

CONTINUED

Driver and Passenger Safety

Your Car's Safety Features
These safety features are designed
to reduce the severity of injuries in acrash. However, you and your
passengers can't take full advantage of these safety features unless you
remain sitting in a proper position

and always wear your seat belts

properly. In fact, some safety
features can contribute to injuries if
they are not used properly. Seat Belts
For your safety, and the safety of
your passengers, your car is equipped with seat belts in all seating
positions.
Your seat belt system alsoincludes a light on the
instrument panel to remind you and
your passengers to fasten your seat
belts.

Why Wear Seat Belts

Seat belts are the single most
effective safety device for adults and
larger children. (Infants and smaller children must be properly restrained
in child seats.)
Not wearing a seat belt properly
increases the chance of serious
injury or death in a crash, even
though your car has airbags. In addition, most states and all
Canadian provinces require you to
wear seat belts.
When properly worn, seat belts:
Keep you connected to the vehicle
so you can take advantage of the
vehicle's built-in safety features.
Help protect you in almost every
type of crash, including frontal, side, and rear impacts and
rollovers.
Driver and Passenger Safety
Not wearing a seat belt properly
increases the chance of serious
injury or death in a crash, even
if you have airbags.
Be sure you and your
passengers always wear seat
belts and wear them properly.

Your Car's Safety Features
Help keep you from being thrown
against the inside of the car and
against other occupants.
Keep you from being thrown out
of the car.
Help keep you in a good position
should the airbags ever deploy. A
good position reduces the risk of injury from an inflating airbag, and
allows you to get the best
advantage from the airbag.
Of course, seat belts cannot
completely protect you in every
crash. But in most cases, seat belts
can reduce your risk of serious
injury.

What you should do: Always wear

your seat belt, and make sure you
wear it properly.
Airbags
Your car has a Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) with front
airbags to help protect the heads and
chests of the driver and a front seat
passenger during a moderate to severe frontal collision. Your car also has side airbags to help
protect the upper torso of the driveror a front seat passenger during a
moderate to severe side impact.
The most important things you need to know about your airbags are:

Airbags do not replace seat belts.

They are designed to supplement
the seal belts.
Driver and Passenger Safety
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Your Car's Safety Features

Airbags offer no protection in rear
impacts, rollovers, or minor
frontal or side collisions. Airbags can pose serious hazards.

To do their job, airbags must inflate with tremendous force andspeed. So while airbags help save
lives, they can cause minor injuries, or more serious or even fatal
injuries if occupants are not
properly restrained or sitting
properly.

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.
Seats & Seat-Backs
Your car's seats are designed to keep
you in a comfortable, upright position so you can take full
advantage of the protection offered
by seat belts and the energy absorbing materials in the seats.
How you adjust your seats and seat-
backs can also affect your safety. For example, sitting too close to thesteering wheel or dashboard
increases the risk of you or your
passenger being injured by striking
the inside of the car, or by an inflating airbag.
Reclining a seat-back too far reduces
the seat belt's effectiveness and increases the chance that the seat'soccupant will slide under the seat
belt in a crash and be seriously
injured.
What you should do: Move the front

seats as far back as possible, and
keep adjustable seat-backs in an
upright position whenever the car is

moving.

Head Restraints Head restraints can help protect you
from whiplash and other injuries. For
maximum protection, the back of
your head should rest against the center of the head restraint.
Door Locks
Keeping your doors locked reduces
the chance of being thrown out of
the car during a crash. It also helps prevent occupants from accidentallyopening a door and falling out, and
outsiders from unexpectedly opening
your doors.

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 176). The rest of this section gives more
detailed information about how you
can maximize your safety.
Remember, however, that no safetysystem 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 childseats 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 81 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 Adults

To reduce the chance of injury, wear your seat belt properly, sit upright
with your back against the seat, and
move the seat as far back as possible
from the steering wheel while stillmaintaining full control of the car.
Also make sure your front seat passenger moves the seat as far tothe rear as possible. Most shorter drivers can get far
enough away from the steering
wheel and still reach the pedals. However, if you are concerned about
sitting too close, we recommend that
you investigate whether some type of adaptive equipment may help.
Once your seat is adjusted correctly,
rock it back and forth to make sure
the seat is locked in position.
See page 94 for how to adjust the
front seats.
3.Adjust the Seat-Backs

Adjust the driver's seat-back to a comfortable, upright position,
leaving ample space between your
chest and the airbag cover in the
center of the steering wheel. If yousit too close to the steering wheel,
you could be injured if the front airbag inflates.

CONTINUED

Driver and Passenger Safety

Sitting too close to a front
airbag can result in serious injury or death if the front
airbags inflate.
Always sit as far back from the
front airbags as possible.