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effective in preventing or reducing injury. "Place the lap belt as low as possible on the
child’s hips. A high-positioned lap belt will in-
crease the risk of sliding under the lap belt and
of the lap belt sliding up over the abdomen, and
both can result in serious internal injury or
death. " Make sure the shoulder belt is positioned
across the center of child’s shoulder. Placing
the shoulder belt over the neck may result in
neck injury during sudden braking or in a colli-
sion.
! Installation of child restraint systems
by use of lower and tether anchorages
(LATCH)
"Child restraint systems and seatbelts can be-
come hot in a vehicle that has been closed up
in sunny weather; they could burn a small child.
Check the child restraint system before you
place a child in it." Do not leave an unsecured child restraint
system in your vehicle. Unsecured child re- straint systems can be thrown around inside of
the vehicle in a sudden stop, turn or accident; it
can strike and injure vehicle occupants as well
as result in serious injuries or death to the
child.
When you install a child restraint system, fol-
low the manufacturer’s instructions supplied
with it. After installing the child restraint sys-
tem, check to ensure that it is held securely in
position. If it is not held tight and secure, the
danger of your child suffering personal injury in
the event of an accident may be increased.
Some types of child restraint systems can be installed
on the rear seat of your vehicle without use of the seat-
belts. Such child restraint systems are secured to the
dedicated anchorages provided on the vehicle body.
The lower and tether anchorages are sometimes re-
ferred to as the LATCH system ( Lower Anchors and
T ethers for CHildren).
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Sedan
Station wagon
You will find marks “ ” at the bottom of the rear
seat seatbacks. These marks indicate the positions of
the lower anchorages (bars).
Each lower anchorage is located where the seat cush-
ion meets the seatback.
When you install a child restraint system, fol-
low the manufacturer’s instructions supplied
with it. After installing the child restraint sys-
tem, check to ensure that it is held securely in
position. If it is not held tight and secure, the
UB1204BAUB1203BA
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Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
2. While following the instructions supplied by the
child restraint system manufacturer, connect the lower
hooks onto the lower anchorages located at “ ”
marks on the bottom of the rear seatback. When the
hooks are connected, make sure the adjacent seat-
belts are not caught.
3. [If your child restraint system is of a flexible attach-
ment type (which uses tether belts to connect the child
restraint system properly to the lower anchorages)]
While pushing the child restraint into the seat cushion,
pull both left and right lower tether belts up to secure
the child restraint system firmly by taking up the slack
in the belt.
4. Connect the top tether hook to the tether anchor-
age and firmly tighten the tether.
For information on how to set the top tether, read the
following “Top tether anchorages”.
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5. Before seating a child in the child restraint system,
try to move seat back and forth and left and right to
verify that it is held securely in position.
6. To remove the child restraint system, follow the re-
verse procedures of installation.
If you have any question concerning this type of child
restraint system, ask your SUBARU dealer. !Top tether anchorages
Your vehicle is equipped with three top tether anchor-
ages so that a child restraint system having a top teth-
er can be installed in the rear seat. When installing a
child restraint system using top tether, proceed as fol- lows, while observing the instructions by the child re-straint system manufacturer.
Since a top tether can provide additional stability by of-
fering another connection between a child restraint
system and the vehicle, we recommend that you use
a top tether whenever one is required or available. !
Tether anchorage location
" Sedan
Three tether anchorages are installed on the rear shelf
behind the rear seat head restraint. Open the cover
flap to use each anchorage.
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TOP TETHER
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2. Open the cover flaps to use the anchorages. 3. Fasten the top tether hook of the child restraint sys-
tem to the appropriate upper anchorage.
4. Tighten the top tether securely.
Do not route the top tether over the head re-
straint. It may happen that the top tether cannot
be fastened tightly.
When the child restraint system is to be se-
cured using the top tether, pass the top tether
under the head restraint between the head re-
straint stay posts. If the top tether still cannot
be fastened tightly, remove the head restraint.
TOP TETHER
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3. Fasten the top tether hook of the child restraint sys-
tem to the appropriate upper anchorage.
4. Tighten the top tether securely.
Always remove the head restraint when mount-
ing a child restraint system with a top tether.
Otherwise, it may happen that the top tether
cannot be fastened tightly. *SRS airbag (Supplemental Restraint
System airbag) *SRS: This stands for supplemental restraint system.
This name is used because the airbag system supple- ments the vehicle’s seatbelts.
Your vehicle is equipped with a crash sensing and di-
agnostic module, which will record the use of the seat-
belt(s) by the driver and/or front passenger when any
of the SRS frontal, side and curtain airbags deploys. !
Vehicle with SRS airbags and lap/
shoulder restraints for driver, front
passenger, and window-side rear pas-
sengers
Your vehicle is equipped with a supplemental restraint
system in addition to a lap/shoulder belt at each front
seating position and each rear window-side seating
positions. The supplemental restraint system (SRS)
consists of six airbags.
The configurations are as follows: " Driver’s and front passenger’s frontal airbags
" Driver’s and front passenger’s side airbags
" Curtain airbags (for driver, front passenger, and
window-side rear passengers)
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SRS airbag cover or between you and the SRS
airbag. If the SRS airbag deploys, those objects
could interfere with its proper operation and
could be propelled inside the vehicle and cause
injury.
"Put children aged 12 and under in the rear
seat properly restrained at all times. The SRS
airbag deploys with considerable speed and
force and can injure or even kill children, espe-
cially if they are 12 years of age and under and are not restrained or improperly restrained. Be-
cause children are lighter and weaker than
adults, their risk of being injured from deploy-
ment is greater.
For that reason, we strongly recommend that
ALL children (including those in child seats and
those that have outgrown child restraint devic-
es) sit in the REAR seat properly restrained at
all times in a child restraint device or in a seat-
belt, whichever is appropriate for the child’s
age, height and weight.
Secure ALL types of child restraint devices (in-
cluding forward facing child seats) in the REAR
seats at all times.
According to accident statistics, children are
safer when properly restrained in the rear seat-
ing positions than in the front seating posi-tions.
For instructions and precautions concerning
the child restraint system, see the “Child re-
straint systems” section in this chapter. "
NEVER INSTALL A REARWARD FACING
CHILD SEAT IN THE FRONT SEAT. DOING SO
RISKS SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH TO THE
CHILD BY PLACING THE CHILD’S HEAD TOO
CLOSE TO THE SRS AIRBAG." Never allow a child to stand up, or to kneel on
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NOTE
The driver’s SRS side airbag, SRS curtain airbag
and seatbelt pretensioner are not controlled by the
Subaru advanced frontal airbag system. !Front passenger’s SRS frontal airbag
The front passenger’s SRS frontal airbag uses a dual
stage inflator. The inflator operates in different ways
depending on the severity of impact and the total load
on the seat.
The total load on the seat is monitored by the passen-
ger’s occupant detection system weight sensor under
the seat.
The detection system monitors the total load on the
seat and, based on this, determines as to whether or
not the front passenger’s SRS frontal airbag should be
activated.
Depending on the weight sensor output, only the driv-
er’s SRS frontal airbag may deploy. This is normal.
Observe the following precautions. Failure to do so
may prevent the Subaru advanced frontal airbag sys-
tem from functioning correctly or cause the system to fail." Do not apply any strong impact to the front passen-
ger’s seat such as by kicking." Do not spill liquid on the front passenger’s seat. If
liquid is spilt, wipe it off immediately. "
Do not remove or disassemble the front passen-
ger’s seat." Do not install any accessory (such as an audio am-
plifier) other than a genuine SUBARU accessory un-
der the front passenger’s seat." Do not place anything (shoes, umbrella, etc.) under
the front passenger’s seat." The front passenger’s seat must not be used with
the head restraint removed. " Do not leave any article including a child restraint
system on the front passenger’s seat or the seatbelt
tongue and buckle engaged when you leave your ve-
hicle. " Do not place a magnet near the seatbelt buckle.
" Do not use front seats with their backward-forward
position and seatback not being locked into place se-
curely. If any of them are not locked securely, adjust
them again. For adjusting procedure, refer to the
“Manual seat” in the front seats section in Chapter 1 in
this owner’s manual. (Models equipped with manualseats only)
If the seatbelt buckle switch and/or passenger’s occu-
pant detection system weight sensor have failed, the
SRS airbag system warning light will illuminate. Have
the system inspected by your SUBARU dealer imme-
diately if the SRS airbag system warning light comeson.