2004 Toyota Matrix Owners Manual - Page 43

'04 MATRIX_U (L/O 0307) D Improperly seated and/or restrained infants and children can be killed or seriously injured by the deploying airbags. An infant or child who is too small to use a seat belt should be properly secured using a child restraint system. Toyota strongly recommends that all infants and children be placed in the rear seat of the vehicle and properly restrained. The rear seat is the safest for infants and children. For instructions concerning the installation of a child restraint system, see "Child restraint" on page 54 in this Section. The SRS front airbags are designed to deploy in severe (usually frontal) collisions where the magnitude and duration of the forward deceleration of the vehicle exceeds the designed threshold level. The SRS front airbags will deploy if the severity of the impact is above the designed threshold level, comparable to an approximate 25 km/h (15 mph) collision when the vehicles has the impact straight into a fixed barrier that does not move or deform. However, this threshold velocity will be considerably higher if the vehicle strikes an object, such as a parked vehicle or sign pole, which can move or deform on impact, or if the vehicle is involved in an underride collision (e.g. a collision in which the front of the vehicle "underrides", or goes under, the bed of a truck, etc.). It is possible that in some collisions where the forward deceleration of the vehicle is very close to the designed threshold level, the SRS front airbags and the seat belt pretensioners may not activate together. Always wear your seat belts properly. Collision from the rear Collision from the side Vehicle rollover The SRS front airbags are generally not designed to inflate if the vehicle is involved in a side or rear collision, if it rolls over, or if it is involved in a low− speed frontal collision. But, whenever a collision of any type causes sufficient forward deceleration of the vehicle, deployment of the SRS front airbags may occur. 43 2004 MATRIX from Oct. '03 Prod. (OM12861U)