- Safety belts
·"'----------------
- Make sure that your passengers also buckle up a nd prop -
erly wear t heir safety belts .
- Protect your children wit h a child restraint system appro-
priat e for the size and age of th e children.
The warn ing light ~ in the instrument cluster lights up when the igni-
tion is sw itched on as a reminder to fasten the safety belts. In addi-
tion, you will hear a warn ing sou nd.
After the ignition is sw itched on, the warning tone will come on for
abou t 6 secon ds along wit h a
,i war ning light in t he inst rument
cluster if eit her t he d river or (on USA mode ls o nly) front seat
passenge r has not fa stened t heir safety belt . As soo n as t he driver
and front seat passenger have fastened the safety belt, the warning
tone will stop and the warning light will go out.
If both t he dr iver a nd front seat passenge r have not buckled -up
with in about 24 seconds after the warning tone has stopped, the
wa rning tone will so und again for abou t 6 seconds. The war ning tone
will sound repeatedly for about 6 seconds at 24 second intervals unt il
bot h the driver and front passenger have buck led-up. The safety belt
wa rning system is active for about S minutes and d uring this time the
wa rning light in the instr ument cluster will stay on.
Fasten your safety belt now and make s ure that your pas sengers
also properly put on their safety belt s. •
Why safety belts?
Frontal collisions and the law of physics
Frontal crashes create very stron g forc es for people
riding in vehicles.
Fig. 163 Unbe lted
occupants in a veh icle
heading for a wall
Fig. 164 The vehicle
crashes into t he wall
The phys ica l pr inciples are simple. Both the vehicle and the passen-
gers possess energy which var ies wit h veh icle speed and body weight.
Enginee rs ca ll t his ene rgy "kinetic energy."
The higher the speed of the veh icle and the greater the vehicle's
we ight, the more energy that has to be "absorbed" in the crash .
Vehicle speed is t he most significan t fa ctor. If t he speed doubles
from 15 to 30 mph (25 to 50 km/h), the energy increases 4 times! .,
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