How
does
an air bag restrain?
In
moderate
to
severe frontal
or
near-frontal cobsions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or the
instrument panel.
Air
bags supplement the protection
provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute the force
of
the
impact more evenly over the occupant’s upper body,
stopping the occupant more gradually. But air bags
would
not help you in
many
types
of
collisions, including
rollovers, rear impacts and side impacts,
primarily
because
an
occupant’s motion is not toward those air bags.
Air
bags should never be regarded as anything more than a
supplement to safety belts, and then
only
in moderate
to
severe frontal
or
near-frontal collisions.
What
will
you
see after an air bag inflates?
After an
air
bag inflates, it quickly deflates,
so
quickly that
some people may not even realize the
air
bag inflated.
Some components
of
the
air bag module
--
the steering
wheel hub for the driver’s
air
bag, or the instrument panel
for the right front passenger’s bag
--
will be hot for a short
time. The parts
of
the bag that come into contact with you
may be warm, but not too
hot
to
touch.
There will be
some smoke and dust coming from vents in the deflated
air
bags.
Air
bag inflation doesn’t prevent the driver from
seeing
or
from
being able
to
steer the vehicle, nor does
it
stop people from leaving
the
vehicle.
A
CAUTION:
When an air bag inflates, there
is
dust in the air.
This dust could cause breathing problems
for
people with a history
of
asthma or other
breathing trouble. To avoid this, everyone in the
vehicle should get out as soon as it
is
safe to do
so.
If
you have breathing problems but can’t get out
of the vehicle after an air bag inflates, then get
fresh air by opening a window or door.
Your vehicle has a feapre that will automatically unlock
the doors and turn the interior lamps on when the air
bags
inflate (if battery power
is
available).
You
can lock
the
doors again and turn the interior lamps
off
by using
the door lock and interior lamp controls.
In many crashes severe enough to inflate an air bag,
windshields are broken by vehicle deformation.
Additional windshield breakage may also occur from
the
right
front passenger air bag.
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