2003 Oldsmobile Alero Owner's Manuals

Securing a Child Restraint in the
Right Front Seat Position
U
Your vehicle has a right front passenger air bag.
Never put a rear-facing child restraint in this seat.
Here’s why:
A child in a rear-facing child restraint can be
seriously injured or killed
if the right front
passenger’s air bag inflates. This is because
the back
of the rear-facing child restraint
would be very close to the inflating air bag.
Always secure a rear-facing child restraint in a
rear seat. Although
a rear seat is a safer place, you can secure a
forward-facing child restraint in the right front seat.
You’ll be using the lap-shoulder belt. See
Top Strap on
page
1-41, if the child restraint has one. Be sure to
follow the instructions that came with the child restraint.
Secure the child in the child restraint when and as
the instructions say.
1. Because your vehicle has a right front passenger
air bag, always move the seat as far back as it will
go before securing a forward-facing child restraint.
See
Manual Seats on page 1-2.
2. Put the restraint on the seat.
3. Pick up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicle’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show you how.
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6. To tighten the belt, feed the shoulder belt back into
the retractor while you push down on the child
restraint. You may find it helpful to use your knee to
push down on the child restraint as you tighten
the belt.
directions to be sure it is secure.
7. Push and pull the child restraint in different
To remove the child restraint, just unbuckle the vehicle’s
safety belt and let
it go back all the way. The safety
belt
will move freely again and be ready to work for an
adult or larger child passenger.
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Supplemental Restraint
System
(SRS)
This part explains the Supplemental Restraint
System
(SRS) or air bag system.
Your vehicle has air bags
- one air bag for the driver
and another air bag for the right front passenger.
Frontal air bags are designed to help reduce the risk of
injury from the force of an inflating air bag. But these
air bags must inflate very quickly to do their job
and comply with federal regulations.
Here are the most important things to know about the
air bag system:
You ~-.i be severely ..., ured 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 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 or low-speed frontal
crashes, or in many side crashes. And, for
some unrestrained occupants, 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
an air bag for that person.
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Air bags inflate with great force, faster than the blink of an eye. If you’re too close to an
inflating air bag, as you would be if you were
leaning forward,
it could seriously injure you.
Safety belts help keep you
in position before
and during a crash. Always wear your safety
belt, even with air bags. The driver should
sit
as far back as possible while still maintaining
control of the vehicle.
A CAU,TION:
Anyone who is up against, or very close to,
any air bag when
it inflates can be seriously
injured or killed. 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 parts of this manual called “Older
Children” and “Infants and Young Children”.
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There is a air bag
readiness light on the
instrument panel, which
shows the air bag symbol. Where Are the Air Bags?
~~
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 on page 3-26.
The driver’s air bag is in the middle of the sLei2i-,y .w.i-,ee;.
1 -55

The right front passenger’s air bag is in the instrument
panel on the passenger’s side. 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 causing
severe injury or even death. The path of an
inflating air bag must be kept clear. Don’t 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.
When Should an Air Bag Inflate?
An air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe
frontal or near-frontal crashes. 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 14 mph
(14 to 23 km/h). The threshold level can vary, however,
with specific vehicle design,
so that it can be somewhat
above or below this range.
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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, rear impacts, or in many side 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 and
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 irorli ui ine rigni ironi passenger.
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 many
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
iniiated. 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.
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