2009 Mercury Mariner Owner's Manual - Page 113

Seating and Safety Restraints conditions. A collection of crash and occupant sensors provides information to the Restraints control module (RCM). During a crash, the RCM may activate the safety belt pretensioners and/or either one or both stages of the dual-stage airbag supplemental restraints based on crash severity and occupant conditions. The fact that the pretensioners or airbags did not activate for both front seat occupants in a collision does not mean that something is wrong with the system. Rather, it means the Personal Safety System determined the accident conditions (crash severity, belt usage, etc.) were not appropriate to activate these safety devices. Front airbags are designed to activate only in frontal and near-frontal collisions (not rollovers, side impacts or rear impacts) unless the collision causes sufficient longitudinal deceleration. The pretensioners are designed to activate in frontal, and in side collisions and rollovers. Driver and passenger dual-stage airbag supplemental restraints The dual-stage airbags offer the capability to tailor the level of airbag inflation energy. A lower, less forceful energy level is provided for more common, moderate-severity impacts. A higher energy level is used for the most severe impacts. Refer to Airbag supplemental restraints section in this chapter. Front crash severity sensor The front crash severity sensor enhances the ability to detect the severity of an impact. Positioned up front, it provides valuable information early in the crash event on the severity of the impact. This allows your Personal Safety System to distinguish between different levels of crash severity and modify the deployment strategy of the dual-stage airbags and safety belt pretensioners. Driver's seat position sensor The driver's seat position sensor allows your Personal Safety System to tailor the deployment level of the driver dual-stage airbag based on seat position. The system is designed to help protect smaller drivers sitting close to the driver airbag by providing a lower airbag output level. Front passenger sensing system For airbags 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 airbag 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 airbag. For other occupants, this occurs when the 113 2009 Mariner (mrn) Owners Guide, 2nd Printing USA (fus)