Reference
At a glance
Controls
Driving tips
Mobility
31
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.
If your vehicle is equipped with rear side
airbags, do not allow children to lean
toward the door trim, as serious injuries could
occur if the side airbags are deployed and chil-
dren are too close to the airbags.<
Deactivating side airbags in the rear
Labels in the rear door opening 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 Sports Activity Vehicle Center.
Child-restraint system in rear
Children under 13 years of age and chil-
dren less than 5 ft/150 cm tall should
always ride in the rear and the restraint systems
should be properly secured.<
Younger children should be secured in an
appropriate child restraint system that has been
first properly secured to the vehicle.
All rear seating positions in your vehicle meet
the recommendations of SAE J1819, an indus-
try-recommended practice for securing child-
restraint systems in motor vehicles.
Exception for the front passenger seat
Should it become necessary to use a
child-restraint system on the front pas-
senger seat, the airbags on the passenger side
must be deactivated. The passenger airbag
indicator lamp above the interior rearview mirror
must light up continuously. Otherwise, the front
passenger airbags remain active and there is considerable risk of injury to children if the air-
bags 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 Sport Activity Vehicle Center.<
Never install a rearward-facing child-
restraint system in the front passenger
seat of this vehicle if the passenger airbag 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 supple-
mental 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 airbag'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 deactivation of
the front passenger airbags, refer to page52.
Installing child-restraint
systems
Before installing any child-restraint system or
child seat, read the following:
Observe the child-restraint system man-
ufacturer's instructions for selection,
installation and use of the child-restraint sys-
tem. Otherwise the degree of protection can be
reduced.
After an accident, have all parts of the relevant
vehicle safety belt system checked by a BMW
Sports Activity Vehicle Center and replaced if
necessary.<
Commercially-available child-restraint systems
are designed to be secured with a lap belt or
with the lap belt portion of a combination lap/
shoulder belt. Improperly or inadequately
installed restraint systems can increase the risk
Technology for comfort, convenience and safety
52
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 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 deactivated on the passen-
ger 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 persons that the
front passenger airbags are deactivated. In
these cases, have the person ride in the rear
seat, refer to Passenger airbag status lamp
below. Do not load the passenger seat with any
items in addition to the person to be trans-
ported. Do not fit seat covers, seat cushion pad-
ding, ball mats or other items onto the front pas-
senger seat unless they are specifically
r e c o m m e n d e d b y B M W . D o n o t p l a c e a n y i t e m s
under the seat. Otherwise, the function of the
seat occupation detection could be impaired.<
Operational readiness of airbag system
As of ignition key position 1, the warning lamp
lights up briefly, thus indicating the operational
readiness of the entire airbag system and the
safety belt tensioners.
Airbag system malfunction
>The warning lamp does not light up as of
ignition key position 1.
>The warning lamp lights up continuously.
Have the airbag system checked immedi-
ately if a malfunction occurs, as otherwise
there is a danger of the system failing to
respond in the expected manner to an impact
occurring within its normal response range.<
Passenger airbag status lamp
One of the illustrated indicator lamps is located
above the interior rearview mirror.
The indicator lamp indicates whether the front
passenger airbag system is active or not active/
OFF.
The indicator lamp is used only for the
front passenger airbag system. The indi-
cator lamp illuminates to show that the front
passenger airbag system is OFF/not active.<
>The indicator lamp goes out after a few sec-
onds.
The front passenger airbags are active, e.g.
when transporting an adult.
>The indicator lamp lights up continuously.
The front passenger airbags are deacti-
vated, e.g. when a child is traveling in the
vehicle in the child-restraint system or
when the seat is empty.
Find more information about passenger airbag
system and seat occupancy detection in sec-
tion Automatic deactivation of front passenger
airbags above.
