2001 Mercury Sable Owner Guide 3rd Printing - Page 83

Seating and safety restraints • A series of five beeps will be heard. The tone pattern will repeat periodically until the problem and indicator light are repaired. If any of these things happen, even intermittently, have the Personal Safety System serviced at your dealership or by a qualified technician immediately. Unless serviced, the system may not function properly in the event of a collision. When are the front air bags and pretensioners deployed? Front air bags and pretensioners are designed to activate in frontal and near-frontal collisions, not rollover, side-impacts, or rear-impacts unless the collision causes sufficient longitudinal deceleration. The fact that the pretensioners or air bags did not activate in a collision does not mean that something is wrong with the system. Rather, it means the Personal Safety System determined the occupant conditions or crash severity were not appropriate to activate these safety devices. Safety belt precautions Always drive and ride with your seatback upright and the lap belt snug and low across the hips. To reduce the risk of injury, make sure children sit where they can be properly restrained. Never let a passenger hold a child on his or her lap while the vehicle is moving. The passenger cannot protect the child from injury in a collision. All occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, should always properly wear their safety belts, even when an air bag SRS is provided. 83