2003 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX Owners Manual

Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for
Children and Small Adults Here’s how to install a comfort guide and use the
safety belt:
Your vehicle may have this feature already. If it doesn’t,
you can get it from any
GM dealer.
Rear shoulder belt comfort guides will provide added
safety belt comfort for older children who have outgrown
booster seats and for small adults. When installed on
a shoulder belt, the comfort guide better positions
the belt away from the neck and head.
There is one guide available for each outside passenger
position in the rear seat. To provide added safety belt
comfort for children who have outgrown child restraints
and booster seats and for smaller adults, the
comfort guides may be installed on the shoulder belts.
1. Pull the elastic cord out from between the edge of
the seatback and the interior body to remove the
guide from its storage clip.
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2. Slide the guide under and past the belt. The elastic
cord must be under the belt. Then, place the guide
over the belt, and insert the two edges
of the
belt into the slots of the guide.
3. Be sure that the belt is not twisted and it lies flat.
The elastic cord must be under the belt and the
guide on top.
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4. Buckle, position and release the safety belt as
described in
Rear Seat Passengers on page 1-22.
Make sure that the shoulder belt crosses the
shoulder. To
remove and store the comfort guides, squeeze the
belt edges together
so that you can take them out of the
guides. Pull the guide upward to expose its storage
clip, and then slide the guide onto the clip. Turn
the guide and clip inward and in between the seatback
and the interior body, leaving only the
loop of the
elastic cord exposed.
Safety Belt Extender
If the vehicle’s safety belt will fasten around you, you
should use
it.
But if a safety belt isn’t long enough to fasten, your dealer
will order you an extender. It’s free. When you go in to
order it, take the heaviest coat you will wear,
so the
extender will
be long enough for you. The extender will be
just for you, and just for the seat in your vehicle that you
choose. Don’t let someone else use it, and use it only for
the seat it is made to fit. To wear it, just attach it to the
regular safety belt.
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Child Restraints
Older Children
Older children who have outgrown booster seats should
wear the vehicle’s safety belts.
If you have the choice, a child should sit next to a
window
so the child can wear a lap-shoulder belt and
get the additional restraint a shoulder belt can provide.
Q: What is the proper way to wear safety belts?
A: If possible, an older child should wear a
lap-shoulder belt and get the additional restraint a
shoulder belt can provide. The shoulder
belt
should not cross the face or neck. The lap belt
should fit snugly below the hips, just touching the
top of the thighs. It should never be worn over
the abdomen, which could cause severe or even
fatal internal injuries in a crash.
Accident statistics show that children are safer
if they
are restrained in the rear seat.
In a crash, children who are not buckled up can strike
other people who are buckled up, or can be thrown
out of the vehicle. Older children need to use safety
belts properly.
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Never do this.
Here two children are wearing the same belt.
The belt can’t properly spread the impact
forces. In a crash, the two children can be crushed together and seriously injured.
A belt
must be used by only one person at a time.
Q: What if a child is wearing a lap-shoulder belt,
but the child
is so small that the shoulder belt
is very close to the child’s face or neck?
A: Move the child toward the center of the vehicle, but
be sure that the shoulder belt still is on the child’s
shoulder,
so that in a crash the child’s upper body
would have the restraint that belts provide. If the
child is sitting in a rear seat outside position, see
Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for Children
and
Small Adults on page 7-26. If the child is so small
that the shoulder belt is still very close to the child’s
face
or neck, you might want to place the child in the
center seat position, the one that has only
a lap belt.
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Never do this.
Here a child
is sitting in a seat that has a
lap-shoulder belt,
but the shoulder part is
behind the child. If the child wears the belt in
this way, in a crash the child might slide under
the belt. The belt’s force would then be applied right on the child’s abdomen. That could cause
serious or fatal injuries.
Wherever the child sits, the lap portion of the belt
should be worn low and snug on the hips, just touching
the child’s thighs. This applies belt force to the child’s
pelvic bones in a crash.
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Infants and Young Children
Everyone in a vehicle needs protection! This includes
infants and all other children. Neither the distance
traveled nor the age and size of the traveler changes
the need, for everyone, to use safety restraints. In fact,
the law in every state in the United States and in
every Canadian province says children up to some age
must be restrained while in a vehicle.
Every time infants and young children ride in vehicles,
they should have the protection provided
by appropriate
restraints. Young children should not use the vehicle’s
adult safety belts alone, unless there is no other choice.
Instead, they need to use a child restraint.
c
People should never hold a baby in their arms
while riding in
a vehicle. A baby doesn’t weigh
much
-- until a crash. During a crash a baby will
become
so heavy it is not possible to hold it.
CAUTION: (Continued)
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For example, in a crash at only 25 mph
(40 km/h), a 12-lb. (5.5 kg) baby will suddenly
become
a 240-lb. (110 kg) force on a person’s
arms.
A baby should be secured in an
appropriate restraint.
-
Children who are 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 outstanding protection for adults
and older children, 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.
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