1998 Buick Century Owner's Manual - Page 27

The best way to protectthe fetus is to protect the mother. When a safety belt is worn properly, it's more likely that the fetus won't be hurt in a crash. For pregnant women, as for anyone,the key to making is safety belts effective wearing them properly. Here are the most important things to know about the air bag system: I -- Right Front Passenger Posil - In To learn how to wear the right front passenger's safety belt properly, see "Driver Position" earlier in this section. The right front passenger's safety beltworks the same way as the driver'ssafety belt -- except for onething. If you ever pull the shoulder portion the belt out of all the way, you will engage the child restraint locking feature. If this happens, just let belt go back all the the way and start again. Air Bag System This part explains air bag system. the Your vehicle has"Next Generation" reduced-force frontal airbags -- one air bag for the driverand another air bag for the right frontpassenger. Reduced-force frontal airbags are designed to help reduce the riskof injury from the force of an inflating air bag.But even these airbags must inflate very quickly if they are todo their job and comply with federal regulations. You can be severelyinjured or killed in a crash if you aren't wearing your safety belt even if you have air bags. Wearing your safety belt during a crash helps reduce your chance of hitting things inside the vehicle or being ejected from it. Air bags are "supplemental restraints" to the safety belts. All air bags even reduced-force air bags are designed to work with safety belts, but don't replace them. Air bags are designed to work only inmoderate to severe crashes where the frontof your vehicle hits something. They aren't designed to inflate at all in rollover, rear, side or low-speed frontal crashes. And, for unrestrained occupants, reduced-force air bags may provide less protection in frontal crashes than more forceful air bags have provided in the past. Everyone in your vehicle should wear a safety beltproperly whether or not there's an air bag for that person. -- -- -- -- 1-19