1996 Cadillac Seville Owner's Manual - Page 39

How does an air bag restrain? In moderate to severefrontal or near-frontal collisions, even belted occupants can contactthe steering wheelor the instrument panel.The airbag supplements the protection providedby safety belts. Air bags distribute the force of the impactmore evenly over the occupant's upper body, stopping theoccupant more gradually. But air bags would not help you many types of collisions, in including rollovers, rear impacts and side impacts, primarily because an occupant's motion is not toward the a r bag. Air bags should i never be regarded as anything more than a supplement to safetybelts, and then onlyin moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions. ~ A CAUTION: When an air bag inflates, there is dust in the air. This dust couldcause breathing problems for people with history of asthma or other a breathing trouble.To avoid this, everyone in the vehicle should get as soon as it is safe to do so. out If you have breathing problems but can't get out of the vehicle afteran air bag inflates, then get fresh air by opening a window or door. What will you seeafter an air bag inflates? After the air bag inflates, it quickly deflates. Thisoccurs so quickly that some people maynot even realize theair bag inflated. Some components of the air bag module in the steering wheel hub forthe driver's air bag, or the instrument panel for the right front passenger's bag, will be hot for a short time. The part of the bag thatcomes into contact with you may be warm, but it will never be too hot to touch. There will be some smoke and dust coming from vents inthe deflated air bags. Air bag inflation will not prevent the driverfrom seeing or from being able to steer the vehicle, norwill it stop people from leaving the vehicle. Your vehicle has a feature that will automatically unlock the doors and turn the interior lamps on whenthe air bag inflates (if battery power is available). But if you want to, you can lock the doors again and turn interior the lamps off by using the door lock and interior lamp controls. In many crashes severe enoughto inflate an air bag, windshields are broken by vehicle deformation. Additional windshield breakage may alsooccur from the right front passenger air bag. 0 The air bags are designed to inflate only once. After they inflate, you'll need some new parts for your air -24