2011 Ford Escape Owner Guide 4th Printing - Page 126

Seating and Safety Restraints restrain children in the rear seat. The sensor also turns off the passenger front airbag and passenger seat-mounted side airbag when the passenger seat is empty. When the front passenger seat is occupied and the sensing system has turned off the passenger's frontal airbag, the "pass airbag off" indicator will light and stay lit to remind you that the front passenger frontal airbag is off. See Front passenger sensing system in the airbags section of this chapter. Front safety belt usage sensors The front safety belt usage sensors detect whether or not the driver and front outboard passenger safety belts are fastened. This information allows your Personal Safety System to tailor the airbag deployment and safety belt pretensioner activation depending upon safety belt usage. Refer to Safety restraints section in this chapter. Front safety belt pretensioners The safety belt pretensioners at the front outboard seating positions are designed to tighten the safety belts firmly against the occupant's body during frontal collisions, and in side collisions and rollovers. This helps increase the effectiveness of the safety belts. In frontal collisions, the safety belt pretensioners can be activated alone or, if the collision is of sufficient severity, together with the front airbags. Safety belt energy management retractors The front and rear outboard safety belt energy management retractors allow webbing to be pulled out of the retractor in a gradual and controlled manner in response to the occupant's forward momentum. This helps reduce the risk of force-related injuries to the occupant's chest by limiting the load on the occupant. Refer to Energy management feature in this chapter. Determining if the Personal Safety System is operational The Personal Safety System uses a warning light in the instrument cluster or a back-up tone to indicate the condition of the system. Refer to the Warning lights and chimes section in the Instrument Cluster chapter. Routine maintenance of the Personal Safety System is not required. The restraints control module (RCM) monitors its own internal circuits and the circuits for the airbag supplemental restraints, crash sensor(s), safety belt pretensioners, front safety belt buckle sensors, driver seat position sensor, and front passenger sensing system. In addition, the 126 2011 Escape (204) Owners Guide, 4th Printing USA (fus)