Owner manual

105
STARTING
AND DRIVING
WARNING
LIGHTS AND
MESSAGES
IN AN
EMERGENCY
SERVICE
AND CARE
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATIONS
INDEX
CONTROLS
AND DEVICES
SAFETY
FRONT AIRBAGS
The car is fitted with front airbags for the
driver and the passenger, and with a knee
bag on the driver’s side (for versions/mar -
kets, where provided).
The front driver/passenger airbags and the
driver’s knee bag (for versions/markets,
where provided) have been designed to
protect the occupants of the front seats
in the event of head-on crashes of medi-
um/high severity, by placing the bag be-
tween the occupant and the steering
wheel or dashboard.
Non-activation in other types of crash
(side-on collisions, rear shunts, roll-overs,
etc.) is therefore not a sign of system mal-
function.
An electronic control unit causes the bag
to inflate in the event of a head-on crash.
The bag will inflate instantaneously, placing
itself between the front occupant’s body
and the structures which could cause in-
jury. It will deflate immediately afterwards.
The front driver/passenger airbags and the
driver’s knee bag (for versions/markets,
where provided) are not a replacement
for, but rather complement the use of,
seat belts, which should always be worn,
as specified by law in Europe and most
non-European countries.
The volume of the front airbags at maxi-
mum inflation fills most of the space
between the steering wheel and the dri-
ver and between the dashboard and the
passenger.
In the event of an impact, someone not
wearing a seat belt will move forward and
come into contact with the bag which is
still in the opening stage. The protection
offered by the bag is reduced in such
a case.
Front airbags may not be activated in the
following situations:
❒ in collisions against highly strainable ob-
jects that do not affect the front surface
of the car (e.g. bumper collision against
guard rail, piles of gravel etc.);
❒ jamming of the car underneath other
vehicles or protective barriers (e.g. un-
derneath a truck or a guard rail); in this
case, the bags would offer no addition-
al protection with respect to the seat
belt and their deployment is unneces-
sary. In these cases, non-deployment of
the airbag does not necessarily indicate
a system malfunction.
Do not apply stickers or oth-
er objects on the steering
wheel, passenger side airbag cover or
upper side upholstery. Do not place
objects (e.g. mobile phones) on the
passenger side dashboard because
these could interfere with the correct
opening of the airbag and cause se-
vere injury to occupants.
WARNING
The airbags are not deployed in the event
of minor collisions (for which the with-
holding action of the seat belts is suffi-
cient). For this reason, the seat belt must
be worn at all times. In the case of side-
on collisions, the seat belts hold occupants
in the correct position and prevent them
from being thrown out of the car by a very
violent collision.
093-110 ACTUAL 1ed EN 31-08-2010 9:24 Pagina 105