Mercedes-Benz E-class 1997 Special Settings - Manual (Page 22)

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Warning!
USE CHILD RESTRAINTS
PROPERLY.
• Infants and small children must
be seated in an infant or child
restraint system, which is
properly secured by a lap belt or
lap belt portion of a lap-shoulder
belt. Children could be en-
dangered in an accident if their
child restraints are not properly
secured in the vehicle.
• Rear-facing child restraints must
not be used in the front seat.
They could be struck by the
airbag when it inflates in a crash.
If this happens, a child in the
restraint could be seriously or
fatally injured.
• According to accident statistics,
children are safer when properly
restrained in the rear seating
positions than in the front seating
positions.
• Children too big for child restraint
systems should ride in rear seats
using regular seat belts. Position
shoulder belt across chest and
shoulder, not face or neck. A
booster seat may be necessary to
achieve proper belt positioning.
• Adjust the front passenger seat as
far as possible rear ward from the
dashboard when a child restraint
is installed.
Supplemental Restraint System
(SRS)
The term SRS means that airbags are
intended as a supplement to seat belts.
Airbags alone cannot protect as well as
airbags plus seat belts in impacts for
which the air-bags were designed to
operate, and do not afford any
protection whatsoever in crashes for
which the system is not designed to
deploy.
The SRS uses two crash severity levels
(thresholds) to activate either the
Emergency Tensioning Retractor
(ETR) or airbag or both. Activation
depends on the direction and severity
of the impact, exceeding the thresholds
and fastening of the seat belt.
Seat belt fastened
• first threshold exceeded:
ETR activates
• second threshold exceeded:
airbag also activates
Seat belt not fastened
• first threshold exceeded:
airbag activates, but not ETR
Driver and front passenger systems
operate independently of each other.