Owner's Manual Cadillac BLS - IFS Europe BV
Owner's Manual Cadillac BLS - IFS Europe BV
Owner's Manual Cadillac BLS - IFS Europe BV
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460_OM_MY09.book Page 42 Wednesday, April 2, 2008 10:32 AM<br />
42 Safety<br />
• The car’s impact protection consists of<br />
various safety items, such as airbags,<br />
seat belts, steering wheel, seats and<br />
instrument panel. These items are<br />
harmonised to provide excellent protection<br />
in the event of a collision.<br />
Therefore, never transfer an airbag<br />
from one car to another.<br />
There is no guarantee that a transferred<br />
airbag will function optimally in<br />
the event of a collision.<br />
• Work on the car that requires the<br />
replacing or scrapping of an airbag or<br />
seat belt pretensioner must be carried<br />
out at a workshop. We recommend<br />
that you contact an authorised<br />
<strong>Cadillac</strong> workshop.<br />
Frequently asked questions<br />
about airbags<br />
Do you still need to wear a seat belt if the car<br />
has airbags?<br />
Yes, always! Airbags merely supplement<br />
the car’s normal safety system. Moreover,<br />
an airbag will only be actuated in a serious<br />
front-end or side-on collision, which means,<br />
of course, that it provides no protection in<br />
minor frontal or side-on collisions, in rearend<br />
collisions or if the car rolls over.<br />
Seat belts can prevent passengers from<br />
being thrown around or out of the car and<br />
being seriously or fatally injured.<br />
But they also ensure, in a collision in which<br />
the airbags are detonated, that the airbag<br />
will make optimum contact with the occupant,<br />
i.e. square on from the front. If the<br />
occupant meets the airbag at an offset, the<br />
protection afforded will be diminished.<br />
In addition, airbags provide no protection<br />
against a secondary impact occurring in the<br />
same incident. Therefore, wear a seat belt<br />
at all times.<br />
Don’t sit too close to the airbag; it needs<br />
room to inflate.<br />
The airbag inflates very quickly and powerfully<br />
in order to protect an adult person,<br />
before their head is thrown forward, in a<br />
violent front-end collision.<br />
When are the driver and passenger airbags<br />
detonated?<br />
The airbags will only be detonated under<br />
certain predetermined conditions in a violent<br />
front-end collision, depending on such<br />
factors as the force and angle of the impact,<br />
the speed of the car on impact, and the<br />
resistance to deformation of the impacting<br />
object.<br />
The airbag system can only be activated<br />
once in the same incident.<br />
Do not attempt to drive the car after an<br />
airbag has been detonated, even if this is<br />
possible.<br />
What won’t trigger the airbag?<br />
The airbag system will not be activated in all<br />
front-end collisions. For instance, if the car<br />
has hit something relatively soft and yielding<br />
(e.g. a snow drift or a hedge) or a solid<br />
object at a low speed, the airbag system will<br />
not necessarily be triggered.