2006 TOYOTA PRIUS Owners Manual

433
REPORTING SAFETY DEFECTS FOR U.S.
OWNERS
Reporting safety defects for U.S. owners434
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SECTION 10

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If you believe that your vehicle has
a defect whi ch coul d cause a cr ash
or could cause injury or death, you
should immediately inform the Na-
tional Highway Traffic Safety Ad-
ministration (NHTSA) in addition to
notifying Toyota Motor Sales,
U.S.A., Inc. (Toll−free:
1 −800 −331 −4331).
If NHTSA receives similar com-
plaints, it may open an investiga-
tion, and if it finds that a safety de-
fect exists in a group of vehicles, it
may order a recall and remedy
campaign. However, NHTSA cannot
become involved in individual prob-
lems between you, your dealer, or
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. To contact NHTSA, you may either
call the Auto Safety Hotline toll
−free
at 1 −800 −424 −9393 (or 366 −0123
in Washington, D.C. area) or write
to: NHTSA, U.S. Department of
Transportation, Washington, D.C.
20590. You can also obtain other
information about motor vehicle
safety from the Hotline.
Reporting safety defects for
U.S. owners

435
Important information about this manual
Safety and vehicle damagewarnings
Throughout this manual, you will see safe-
ty and vehicle damage warnings. You
must follow these warnings carefully to
avoid possible injury or damage.
The types of warnings, what they look
like, and how they are used in this manu-
al are explained as follows:
CAUTION
This is a warning against anything
which may cause injury to people
if the warning is ignored. You are
informed about what you must or
must not do in order to reduce the
risk of injury to yourself and oth-
ers.
NOTICE
This is a warning against anything
which may cause damage to the
vehicle or its equipment if the
warning is ignored. You are in-
formed about what you must or
must not do in order to avoid or
reduce the risk of damage to your
vehicle and its equipment.
Safety symbol
When you see the
safety symbol shown
above, it means: “Do
not...”; “Do not do
this”; or “Do not let
this happen”.

436
Important information about your Toyota

437
Occupant restraint sys-tems
Toyota encourages you and your
family to take the time to read
Section 2−2 of this Owner’s Manu-
al carefully. In terms of helping
you understand how you can re-
ceive the maximum benefit of the
occupant restraint systems this ve-
hicle provides, Section 2 −2 of this
Owner ’s Manual is the most im-
portant section for you and your
family to read.
Section 2 −2 describes the function
and operation concerning seats,
seat belts, SRS airbags and child
restraint systems of this vehicle
and some potential hazards you
should be aware of. These sys-
tems work together along with the
overall structure of this vehicle in
order to provide occupant restraint
in the event of a crash. The effect
of each system is enhanced when
it is used properly and together
with other systems. No single oc-
cupant restraint system can, by it-
self, provide you or your family
with the equal level of restraint
which these systems can provide
when used together. That is why it
is important for you and your fam-
ily to understand the purpose and
proper use of each of these sys-
tems and how they relate to each
other.
The purpose of all occupant re-
straint systems is to help reduce
the possibility of death or serious
injury in the event of a collision.
None of these systems, either in-
dividually or together, can ensure
that there is no injury in the event
of collision. However, the more
you know about these systems
and how to use them properly, the
greater your chances become of
surviving an accident without death
or serious injury.
Seat belts provide the primary re-
straint to all occupants of the ve-
hicle, and every occupant of the
vehicle should wear seat belts
properly at all times. Children
should always be secured in child
restraint systems that are ap-
propriate for their age and size.
SRS (Supplemental Restraint Sys-
tem) airbags are, as their names
imply, designed to work with, and
be supplemental to, seat belts and
are not substitutes for them. SRS
airbags can be very effective in
reducing the risk of head and
chest injuries by preventing con-
tact of the head and chest with
interior portions of the vehicle.

438

439
In order to be effective, the SRS
airbags must deploy with tremen-
dous speed. The rapid deployment
of the SRS airbags makes the
SRS airbags themselves potential
sources of serious injury if an oc-
cupant is too close to an airbag,
or if an object or some part of his
or her body has been placed be-
tween the occupant and the airbag
at the time of deployment. This is
just one example of how the in-
structions in Section 2−2 of this
Owner ’s Manual will help ensure
proper use of the occupant re-
straint systems, and increase the
safety they can provide to you
and your family in the event of an
accident.
Toyota recommends you to read
the provisions in Section 2− 2 care-
fully and refer to them as needed
during your time of ownership of
this vehicle.Event data recorder
Your vehicle has computers that
monitor and control certain as-
pects of your vehicle. These com-
puters assist in driving and main-
taining optimal vehicle perfor-
mance. Besides storing data useful
for troubleshooting, there is a sys-
tem to record data in a crash or
a near car crash event. This is
called an Event Data Recorder
(EDR).
The SRS airbag sensor assembly
contains the EDR. In a crash or a
near car crash event, this device
may record some or all of the fol-
lowing information:
 Engine speed
 Whether the brake pedal was
applied or not
 Vehicle speed
 To what extent the accelerator
pedal was depressed
 Position of the transmission
selector lever
 Whether the driver and front
passenger wore the seat belts
or not
 Driver ’s seat position
 Front passenger ’s occupant
classification

440