Transporting children safely
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Transporting children safely
The right place for children
Children always in the rear
Accident research shows that the safest
place for children in a vehicle is in the rear
seat.
Older children should be tightly secured
with a safety belt, after they have outgrown
a booster seat that is appropriate for their
age, height and weight.
A child sitting in the rear seat and not
properly restrained may place his or
her head on or near the airbag, if so
equipped. For example, a child, even
though belted, may fall asleep with his or
her head against the side airbag. It may be
difficult for a driver to ensure that children
in the rear seat will remain properly posi-
tioned at all times and do not place their
heads on or near the side airbags. There-
fore, we recommend that the rear side air-
bags, if provided, be deactivated if you plan
to transport children in the rear seat.<
Child-restraint system in the rear
Children under 13 years of age and
children less than 5 ft/150 cm tall
should always ride in the rear and the
restraint systems should be secured with
the vehicle's safety belts.<
Younger children should be secured in an
appropriate forward-facing child-restraint
system that has first been properly
restrained. We strongly urge you to care-
fully read and comply with the instructions
for installation and use provided by the
child restraint‘s manufacturer whenever
you use such a device.
All rear sitting positions in your vehicle
meet the recommendations of SAE J1819,
an industry-recommended practice for
securing child-restraint systems in motor
vehicles.
Exception for front passenger seat
Should it become necessary to use
a child-restraint system on the front
passenger seat, the airbags on the passen-
ger‘s side must be deactivated. The pas-
senger airbag indicator lamp above the
interior rearview mirror must light up con-
tinuously. Otherwise, the front passenger
airbags remain active and there is consid-
erable risk of injury to children if the airbags
are triggered, even with a child-restraint
system. In this case, children should be
seated in the rear and the system should be
checked at your BMW center.<
Never install a rearward-facing child-
restraint system in the front passen-
ger seat of this vehicle if the passenger air-
bag is not deactivated. If you do so, the
child could be severely injured when the
airbag is triggered.
Your vehicle is equipped with an airbag
supplemental restraint system for the front
passenger. Because the backrest on any
rearward-facing child-restraint system, of
the kind designed for infants under 1 year
and 20 Ibs./9 kg, would be within the air-
bag‘s deployment range, you should never
mount such a system in the front passenger
seat, since the impact of the airbag against
the child restraint‘s backrest could lead to
serious or fatal injuries.<
More information on Automatic deactiva-
tion of the front passenger airbags, refer to
page98.
Installing child-restraint
systems
Before installing any child-restraint system
or child seat, read the following:
Observe the child-restraint system
manufacturer's instructions for instal-
lation and use. Otherwise the degree of
protection can be reduced.
Following an accident, have all parts of the
Technology for comfort, convenience and safety
98
Airbags
The following airbags are located under the
marked covers:
1Front airbags for driver and front pas-
senger
2Head airbags in front and rear
3Side airbags in front and rear
*
4Knee airbags for driver and front pas-
senger
Protective effect
The front airbags help protect the driver
and front passenger by responding to fron-
tal impacts in which safety belts alone can-
not provide adequate restraint. When
needed, the head and side airbags help
provide protection in the event of side
impact. The side airbags help restrain the
side of the occupant's upper torso, and the
head airbags help support the head while
also helping provide protection against any
objects penetrating into the passenger
compartment. The knee airbags help pro-
tect the legs against impact against the
cockpit.
The airbags are deliberately not triggered in
every impact situation, e.g. less severe
accidents, certain roll-over conditions, or
rear-end collisions.
The rear seat side airbags may
already have been deactivated by a
BMW center. Labels in the rear door open-
ing should indicate the status of your rear
seat side airbags. If you are uncertain of
their status, or wish to have the airbags
activated or deactivated, please contact
your BMW center.
Do not apply adhesive materials to
the cover panels of the airbags, cover
them or modify them in any other way.
Do not attempt to remove the airbag reten-
tion system from the vehicle. Never modify
or tamper with either the wiring or the indi-
vidual components in the airbag system.
This category includes the upholstery in the
center of the steering wheel, on the instru-
ment panel, the doors and the roof pillars
along with the sides of the headliner. Do
not attempt to remove or dismantle the
steering wheel.
Do not touch the individual components
directly after the system has been trig-
gered, because there is a danger of burns.
In case of malfunctions, storage or after the
airbag restraint system has been triggered,
only have checking, repair or dismantling
and the scrapping of the airbag generators
carried out by a BMW center or a workshop
that uses personnel trained in accordance
with BMW requirements and equipped with
the required explosives permits. Unprofes-
sional attempts to service the system could
lead to failure in an emergency or undes-
ired airbag activation, either of which could
result in personal injury.<
Airbag warning information is also provided
on the sun visors.
Automatic deactivation of front
passenger airbags
Your BMW has a seat occupation detection
system. By evaluating the weight on the
front passenger‘s seat, the system detects
Controls
99Reference
At a glance
Driving tips
Communications
Navigation
Entertainment
Mobility
whether or not the seat is occupied by a
child in the child-restraint system or an
adult.
>When a child is seated in the child-
restraint system or with an empty seat,
the front and side airbags are automat-
ically deactivated on the passenger's
side
>When an adult is traveling in the front
seat, the front and side airbags remain
active on the passenger side.
Although not desired, it can occur in
the case of heavier children that the
front passenger airbags remain active or in
the case of very light adults or young per-
sons that the front passenger airbags are
deactivated.
The state of the front passenger airbags is
shown with the indicator lamp, refer to Indi-
cator lamps in the following. In this case
transport the corresponding persons on the
rear seat.
Except when persons to be transported, do
not increase the load on the front passen-
ger seat with additional items. Do not fit
seat covers, seat cushion padding, ball
mats or other items to the front passenger
seat unless they are specifically recom-
mended by BMW. Do not place any items
under the seat. Otherwise, the function of
the seat occupation detection could be
impaired.<
Indicator lamps
Airbag system ready for use
The warning lamp indicates the operational
readiness of the entire airbag system and
the safety belt tensioners from the radio position: the warning lamp goes out after
afew seconds.
The indicator lamp above the interior rear-
view mirror indicates whether the front-pas-
senger airbag system is activated or deacti-
vated as of ignition key radio position.
The indicator lamp refers exclusively
to the front-passenger airbag sys-
tem.<
>The indicator lamp goes out after a few
seconds.
The front passenger airbags are active,
e.g. when transporting an adult
>The indicator lamp lights up continu-
ously. The front passenger airbags are
deactivated, e.g. when transporting a
child in the child-restraint system or
when the seat is unoccupied.
For more information on the operating prin-
ciple of the front passenger airbag system
and seat occupation detection, refer to
Automatic deactivation of the front passen-
ger airbags.
Airbag system malfunction
Have the airbag system checked
immediately if a malfunction occurs,
as otherwise there is a danger of the sys-
tem failing to respond in the expected man-
ner to an impact occurring within its normal
response range.<
A fault has occurred in the airbag
system:
>The warning lamp fails to come on as of
ignition radio mode
>Warning lamp lights up continuously
>Warning lamp lights during driving.