2005 Mercury Sable Owner's Manual - Page 94

Seating and Safety Restraints 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 air bag 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 allows your Personal Safety System to tailor the air bag deployment and safety belt pretensioner activation depending upon safety belt usage. Refer to Safety Belt section in this chapter. Front safety belt pretensioners The safety belt pretensioners are designed to tighten the front outboard safety belts firmly against the occupant's body during a collision. This maximizes the effectiveness of the safety belts and helps properly position the occupant relative to the air bag to improve protection. The safety belt pretensioners can be either activated alone or, if the collision is of sufficient severity, together with the air bags. Front safety belt energy management retractors The front outboard safety belt energy management retractors allow webbing to be pulled out of the retractor in a gradual and controlled manner in response to the occupant's forward momentum. This helps reduce the risk of force-related injuries to the occupant's chest by limiting the load on the occupant. Refer to Safety Belt section in this chapter. 94 REVIEW COPY 2005 Sable (sab), Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt) (own2002), Market: USA_English (fus)