2005 Mercury Mariner Owner's Manual - Page 114

Seating and Safety Restraints Children and airbags Children must always be properly restrained. Accident statistics suggest that children are safer when properly restrained in the rear seating positions than in the front seating position. Failure to follow these instructions may increase the risk of injury in a collision. Airbags can kill or injure a child in a child seat. NEVER place a rear-facing child seat in front of an active airbag. If you must use a forward-facing child seat in the front seat, move the seat all the way back. How does the air bag supplemental restraint system work? The air bag SRS is designed to activate when the vehicle sustains a longitudinal deceleration sufficient to cause the air bag sensors to close an electrical circuit that initiates air bag inflation. The fact that the air bags did not inflate in a collision does not mean that something is wrong with the system. Rather, it means the forces were not sufficient enough to cause activation. Front air bags are designed to inflate in frontal and near-frontal collisions, not rollover, side-impact, or rear-impacts unless the collision causes sufficient longitudinal deceleration. 114 2005 Mercury Mariner (mrn) Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt) USA_English (fus)