2005 Mercedes C-Class Owner's Manual - Page 63

Safety and Security Occupant safety Warning! G To help avoid the possibility of injury, please follow these guidelines: (1) Occupants, especially children, should never place their bodies or lean their heads in the area of the door where the side air bag inflates. This could result in serious injuries or death should the side air bag be activated. (2) Always sit nearly upright, properly use the seat belts and use an appropriately sized infant or child restraint system for all children 12 years old or under. (3) Always wear seat belts properly. If you believe that, even with the use of these guidelines, it would be safer for your rear seat occupants to have both rear door mounted side air bags deactivated, then deactivation can be accomplished upon your written request to do so at an authorized Mercedes-Benz Center at an additional cost. Accident research shows that the safest place for children in an automobile is in the rear seat. Should you choose to place a child 12 years old or under in the front passenger seat of your vehicle, you must properly use a BabySmartTM1 child restraint which will turn off the passenger front air bag. BabySmartTM will not, however, turn off any side impact air bag. It should be noted that with respect to both front and rear side impact air bags there is a possibility for a side air bag related injury if occupants, especially children, are not properly seated or restrained when next to a side air bag which needs to deploy rapidly in a side impact in order to do its job. 1 Please contact your local authorized Mercedes-Benz Center or call our Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-FOR-MERCedes (1-800-367-6372) for details. i Air bags are designed to activate only in certain frontal impacts (front air bags) and in side impacts (side impact and head protection window curtain air bags) which exceed preset thresholds. Only during these types of impacts, if of sufficient severity to meet the deployment tresholds, will they provide their supplemental protection. The driver and passengers should always wear their seat belts. Otherwise it is not possible for air bags to provide their supplemental protection. BabySmartTM is a trademark of Siemens Automotive Corp. 61