2005 Ford Escape Owner Guide 3rd Printing (Spanish) - Page 434

Seating and Safety Restraints position. The system is designed to help protect smaller drivers sitting close to the driver air bag by providing a lower air bag output level. Front passenger sensing system For air bags to do their job they must inflate with great force, and this force can pose a potentially deadly risk to occupants that are very close to the air bag when it begins to inflate. For some occupants, like infants in rear-facing child seats, this occurs because they are initially sitting very close to the air bag. For other occupants, this occurs when the occupant is not properly restrained by seat belts or child safety seats and they move forward during pre-crash braking. The most effective way to reduce the risk of unnecessary injuries is to make sure all occupants are properly restrained. Accident statistics suggest that children are much safer when properly restrained in the rear seating positions than in the front. Air bags can kill or injure a child in a child seat. NEVER place a rear-facing child seat in front of an active air bag. If you must use a forward-facing child seat in the front seat, move the seat all the way back. Always transport children 12 years old and under in the back seat and always properly use appropriate child restraints. The front passenger sensing system can automatically turn off the passenger front air bag. The system is designed to help protect small (child size) occupants from air bag deployments when they are improperly seated or restrained in the front passenger seat contrary to proper child-seating or restraint usage recommendations. Even with this technology, parents are STRONGLY encouraged to always properly restrain children in the rear seat. The sensor also turns off the passenger front air bag and seat-mounted side air bag (if equipped) when the passenger seat is empty to prevent unnecessary replacement of air bag(s) after a collision. When the front passenger seat is occupied and the sensing system has turned off the passenger's frontal air bag, the "pass air bag off" indicator will light and stay lit to remind you that the front passenger frontal air bag is off. See Front passenger sensing system in the airbags section of this chapter. Front safety belt usage sensors The front safety belt usage sensors detect whether or not the driver and front outboard passenger safety belts are fastened. This information 108 2005 Escape (204) Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt) USA_English (fus)