2004 Mazda MPV Owner's Manual - Page 59

Essential Safety Equipment Child Restraint NOTE WARNING Children and Seating Position with Side Air Bag: Allowing anyone to lean over or against the front door is dangerous. If the vehicle is equipped with side air bags, the impact of an inflating side air bag could cause serious injury or death to the person. Children are more likely to sleep in the vehicle; when they do, they are more at risk in the front passenger's seat that has a side air bag because they may slump over into the path of the seatbackmounted air bag. Furthermore, leaning over or against the doors could block the side air bag and eliminate the advantages of supplemental protection. With the front air bag and the additional side air bag that comes out of the front seat, the rear seat is always a better location for children who are prone to sleeping. If a child can't be seated in the rear, do not allow the child to lean over or against the front door, even if the child is seated in a child-restraint system. To check if your Mazda front seats have side air bags: Every Mazda side air bag will have a "SRS-Air Bag" label on the outboard shoulder of the front seats. WARNING Front Passenger's Seat Position: As your vehicle has front air bags and doubly so if your vehicle has side air bags, a front-facing child-restraint system should be put on the front seat only when it is unavoidable. Even if the front passenger air bag deactivation indicator light illuminates, always move the seat as far back as possible, because the force of a deploying air bag could cause serious injury or death to the child. Rear-Facing Child-Restraint System: Rear-facing child-restraint systems on the front seat are particularly dangerous. The child-restraint system can be hit by a deploying air bag and moved violently backward resulting in serious injury or death to the child. Even though you may feel assured that the front passenger air bag will not deploy based on the fact that the front passenger air bag deactivation indicator light illuminates, NEVER use a rear-facing child-restraint system in the front seat with an air bag that could deploy even in a moderate collision. 2-50