2001 Chevrolet Express Van Owner's Manual - Page 59

Infants and Young Children (Cargo Vans with Passenger Air Bags) CAUTION: (Continued) rear-facing seat settles into the restraint, so the crash forces can be distributed across the strongest part of an infant's body, the back and shoulders. Infants always should be secured in appropriate infant restraints. However, infants, who should be restrained in a rear-facing child restraint, cannot ride safely in this vehicle. CAUTION: Children who are up against, or very close to, any air bag when it inflates can be seriously injured or killed. Air bags plus lap-shoulder belts offer outstanding protection for adults and older children, but not for young children and infants. Neither the vehicle's safety belt system nor its air bag system is designed for them. Young children and infants need the protection that a child restraint system can provide. CAUTION: The body structure of a young child is quite unlike that of an adult or older child, for whom the safety belts are designed. A young child's hip bones are still so small that vehicle's regular safety belt may not remain low on the hip bones, as it should. Instead, it may settle up around the child's abdomen. In a crash, the belt would apply force on a body area that's unprotected by any bony structure. This alone could cause serious or fatal injuries. Young children always should be secured in appropriate child restraints. CAUTION: Newborn infants need complete support, including support for the head and neck. This is necessary because a newborn infant's neck is weak and its head weighs so much compared with the rest of its body. In a crash, an infant in a CAUTION: (Continued) 1-46