2020 KIA OPTIMA PHEV Owners Manual

Safety features of your vehicle
62
3
Side air bag
❈ The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
Your vehicle is equipped with a side
air bag in each front seat. The purpose of the air bag is to pro-
vide the vehicle's driver and/or the
front passenger with additional pro-
tection than that offered by the seat
belt alone.
The side air bags are designed to
deploy during certain side-impact
collisions, depending on the crash
severity, angle, speed and point of
impact. However, when side deploy-
ment threshold is satisfied at front-
impact, side air bags may deploy.
The side air bags may deploy on the side of the impact or on both sides.
The side and/or curtain air bags on both sides of the vehicle will deploy
if a rollover or possible rollover is
detected.
The side air bags are not designed to deploy in all side impact or
rollover situations.
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WARNING- Unexpected
deployment
Avoid impact to the side impact
airbag sensor when Engine
Start/Stop button is ON to pre-
vent unexpected deployment of
the side air bag.
WARNING- No attaching objects
No objects (such as dash pad
cover, cellular phone holder,
cup holder, perfume or stickers)
should be placed over or near
the air bag modules on the
steering wheel, instrument
panel, windshield glass, and the
front passenger's panel above
the glove box. Such objects
could cause harm if the vehicle
is in a crash severe enough to
cause the air bags to deploy. Do
not place any objects over the
air bag or between the air bag
and yourself.
WARNING
Never place or insert any object
into any small opening near
side airbag labels attached to
the vehicle seats. When the air
bag deploys, the object may
affect the deployment and
result in unexpected accident or
bodily harm.

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Safety features of your vehicle
The side air bag is supplemental tothe driver's and the passenger's
seat belt systems and is not a sub-
stitute for them. Therefore your
seat belts must be worn at all times
while the vehicle is in operation.
For best protection from the side air bag system and to avoid being
injured by the deploying side air
bag, both front seat occupants
should sit in an upright position
with the seat belt properly fas-
tened. The driver's hands should
be placed on the steering wheel at
the 9:00 and 3:00 positions. The
passenger's arms and hands
should be placed on their laps. If seat or seat cover is damaged,
have the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized Kia deal-
er. Inform the dealer that your vehi-
cle is equipped with side air bags
and an occupant detection system.
WARNING- Flying objects
Do not place any objects (an
umbrella, bag, etc.) between the
front door and the front seat.
Such objects may become dan-
gerous projectiles if the side
airbag inflates.
WARNING- Deployment
Do not install any accessories
including seat covers, on the
side or near the side air bag as
this may affect the deployment
of the side air bags.
WARNING- No attaching objects
Do not place any objects over the air bag or between the air
bag and yourself. Also, do not
attach any objects around the
area the air bag inflates such
as the door, side door glass,
front and rear pillar.
Do not place any objects between the door and the
seat. They may become dan-
gerous projectiles if the side
air bag inflates.
Never place or insert any object into any small opening
near side airbag labels
attached to the vehicle seats.
When the air bag deploys, the
object may affect the deploy-
ment and result in unexpected
accident or bodily harm.
Do not install any accessories on the side or near the side air
bags.

Safety features of your vehicle
64
3
Curtain air bag
❈ The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
Curtain air bags are located along
both sides of the roof rails above the
front and rear doors.
They are designed to help protect
occupants in certain side impacts
and to help prevent them from eject-
ing out of the vehicle as a result of a
rollover, especially when the seat-
belts are also in use.
The curtain air bags are designed to deploy during certain side impact
collisions, depending on the crash
severity, angle, speed and point of
impact. However, when side deploy-
ment threshold is satisfied at front-
impact, side air bags may deploy.
The curtain air bags may deploy on the side of the impact or on both
sides.
Also, the curtain air bags on both sides of the vehicle will deploy in
certain rollover situations.
The curtain air bags are not designed to deploy in all side
impact or rollover situations. Do not allow the passengers to lean
their heads or bodies against the
doors, put their arms on the doors,
stretch their arms out of the window
or place objects between the doors
and passengers when they are seat-
ed on seats equipped with side
impact and/or curtain air bags.
✽ ✽
NOTICE
Never try to open or repair any com-
ponents of the side and curtain air
bag system. This should only be
done by an authorized Kia dealer.OJF035042
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WARNING - No attaching
objects
Do not place any objects over the air bag. Also, do not attach
any objects around the area
the air bag inflates such as the
door, side door glass, front
and rear pillar, roof side rail.
Do not hang hard or breakable objects on the coat hook.
Do not hang heavy items on the coat hooks for safety rea-
sons.

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Safety features of your vehicle
Why didn’t my air bag go off in a
collision? (Inflation and non-infla-
tion conditions of the air bag)
There are many types of accidents in
which the air bag would not be
expected to provide additional pro-
tection.
These include rear impacts, second
or third collisions in multiple impact
accidents, as well as low speed
impacts.Air bag collision sensors
(1) SRS control module/Rollover sensor
(2) Front impact sensor (3) Side impact sensor
(4) Side impact sensor
(5) Side impact sensor
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Safety features of your vehicle
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3
Problems may arise if the sensor
installation angles are changed due
to the deformation of the front
bumper, front end module, body or
front doors where side collision sen-
sors are installed. Have the vehicle
checked and repaired by an author-
ized Kia dealer.
Installing bumper guards (or side
step or running board) or replacing a
bumper (or front door module) with
non-genuine parts may adversely
affect your vehicle’s collision and air
bag deployment performance.Air bag inflation conditions
Front air bags
Front air bags are designed to inflate
in a frontal collision depending on
the intensity, speed or angles of
impact of the front collision.
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WARNING- Air bag sen-
sors
Do not hit or allow any objects to impact the locations where
air bags or sensors are
installed.
This may cause unexpected
air bag deployment, which
could result in serious per-
sonal injury or death.
If the installation location or angle of the sensors is altered
in any way, the air bags may
deploy when they should not
or they may not deploy when
they should.
Therefore, do not try to per-
form maintenance on or
around the air bag sensors.
Have the vehicle checked and
repaired by an authorized Kia
dealer.

367
Safety features of your vehicle
❈The actual air bags in the vehicle may differ
from the illustration.
Side and/or curtain air bags
Side and/or curtain air bags are
designed to inflate when an impact is
detected by side collision sensors
depending on the strength, speed or
angles of impact resulting from a
side impact collision.
Also, the side and curtain air bags are
designed to inflate when a rollover is
detected by a rollover sensor.
Although the front air bags (driver’s
and front passenger’s air bags) are
designed to inflate in frontal colli-
sions, they also may inflate in other
types of collisions if the front impact
sensors detect a sufficient frontal
force in another type of impact. Side
and curtain air bags are designed to
inflate in certain side impact colli-
sions. They may inflate in other types
of collisions where a side force is
detected by the sensors. Side air bag
and/or curtain air bags may also
inflate where rollover sensors indi-
cate the possibility of a rollover
occurring (even if none actually
occurs) or in other situations, includ-
ing when the vehicle is tilted while
being towed. Even where side and/or curtain air
bags would not provide impact pro-
tection in a rollover, however, they
will deploy to prevent ejection of
occupants, especially those who are
restrained with seat belts.
If the vehicle chassis is impacted by
bumps or objects on unimproved
roads, the air bags may deploy. Drive
carefully on unimproved roads or on
surfaces not designed for vehicle
traffic to prevent unintended air bag
deployment.
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Safety features of your vehicle
68
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Air bag non-inflation conditions
In certain low-speed collisions, the
air bags may not deploy. The air
bags are designed not to deploy in
such cases because they may not
provide benefits beyond the pro-
tection of the seat belts in such col-
lisions. Air bags are not designed to inflate
in rear collisions, because occu-
pants are moved backward by the
force of the impact. In this case,
inflated air bags would not be able
to provide any additional benefit. Front air bags may not inflate in
side impact collisions, because
occupants move to the direction of
the collision, and thus in side
impacts, frontal air bag deployment
would not provide additional occu-
pant protection.
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Safety features of your vehicle
In an angled collision, the force ofimpact may direct the occupants in
a direction where the air bags
would not be able to provide any
additional benefit, and thus the
sensors may not deploy any air
bags. Just before impact, drivers often
brake heavily. Such heavy braking
lowers the front portion of the vehi-
cle causing it to “ride” under a vehi-
cle with a higher ground clearance.
Air bags may not inflate in this
"under-ride" situation because
deceleration forces that are detect-
ed by sensors may be significantly
reduced by such “under-ride” colli-
sions. Front air bags may not inflate in all
rollover accidents where the
SRSCM indicates that the front air
bag deployment would not provide
additional occupant protection.
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