1994 Cadillac Fleetwood Owner's Manual - Page 48

How does an air bag restrain? In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions, evenbelted occupants can contact the steering wheel or theinstrument panel. The air bag supplements 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 wouldnot provide protection in manytypes of collisions, including rollovers and rear and side impacts, primarily because an occupant's motion is not toward the air bag.Air bags should never be regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety belt protection in moderate tosevere frontal and near-frontal collisions. What will you see afteran air bag inflation? After the air bag has inflated, it will then quickly deflate. This occurs so quickly that some people may not even realize that theair bag inflated. Some components of the air bag module in the steering wheel hub for the driver's air bag or the instrument panel for the passenger's bag may be hot for a short time, but the portion of the bag that comes into contact with you will be hot to thetouch. There will be small amounts of not smoke and dust coming from vents in the deflated air bags. The air bag will not impede the driver's visionor ability to steer the vehicle, nor will it hinder the occupants from exiting the vehicle. In many crashes severe enough to inflate an air bag, windshieldsare broken by vehicle deformation. Additional windshield breakage may occur in vehicles with passenger air bagsbecause the windshield acts as a reaction surface for the inflating air bag. The air bags are designed to inflate only once. After they inflate, you'll need some new parts for your air bag system.If you don't get them, the air bag system won'tbe there to help protect you inanother crash. A new system willinclude air bag modules and possibly other parts. The service manual has information about the need to replace other parts. 35