2004 Jeep Wrangler Owner's Manual - Page 5

INTRODUCTION 5 Although your vehicle may be equipped with a soft top or optional hard top to give the occupants protection from the weather, these tops do not offer structural protection in the event of an accident and do not change the open-body characteristic of the vehicle. Even though your vehicle has a sport bar and side bars for some extra protection, it is a truly open vehicle-there is no structural integrated top and it has low sides and a folding windshield. Many of these vehicles do not have fully enclosed hard doors. Failure to use driver and passenger seat belts provided is a major cause of severe or fatal injury. In fact, the U.S. government notes that the universal use of existing seat belts could cut the highway death toll by 10,000 or more each year, and could reduce disabling injuries by 2 million annually. In a roll over crash, an unbelted person is significantly more likely to die than a person wearing a seal belt. Always buckle up. Operating this vehicle at excessive speeds or while intoxicated may result in loss of control, collision with other vehicles or objects, going off the road, or overturning, any of which may lead to serious injury or death. Also, failure to use standard seat belts subjects the driver and passengers to a greater risk of being thrown out of an open-body vehicle than out of a closed vehicle in an accident which can result in injury or death. 1