1998 Oldsmobile 88 Owner's Manual - Page 29

-~ en shou*i.d an..airbag -aatecT I even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or the fif the impact speed is above the system's designed instrument panel.Air bags supplement the protection hhreshold level." If your vehicle goes straight into a wall provided by safety belts.Air bags distribute the force of /that doesn't moveor deform, the threshold level is about the impact more evenly over the occupant's upper body, 4 '. to 15 mph(14 to 24 km/h). The threshold level can stopping the occupant more gradually. Butr bags w a i baq7 however, with specific vehicle design, that it can so not help youin many types of collisions, including this be somewhat above or below range. If your vehicle rollovers, rear impacts and side impacts, primarily becau as )trikes something that will move or deform, such a an occupant's motion is not toward those bags.> air will parked car, the threshold level be higher. Theair bag be bags should never regarded as mythlng morethan a 3s not designed to inflate rollovers, side impacts rear in or in supplement to safety belts, and then only moderate to mpacts, because inflation would not help the occupant. severe.ftontalor near-fiontal collisions. In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air What will you see after an air bag inflates? of bag should have inflated simply becausethe damage to a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were. After an a r bag inflates, it quickly deflates, so i Inflation is determined by the angle of the impact and quickly that some people may not even realize the air bag inflated. Some components the a r bag of i in how quickly the vehicle slows down frontal or for module -- the steering wheel hub the driver's near-frontal impact a r bag, or the instrument panel the rightfront i for at makes ana The passenger's bag-- will be hot for a short time. impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing parts of the bag that come into contact with you may m detects that the vehiclein a crash.The sensing is be wann, but not too to touch. Therewill be some hot system triggers a release gas from the inflator, which of in smoke and dust coming from ventsthe deflated inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag and related air bags. Air bag inflation doesn't prevent the driver bardware are all part of the air bag modules inside the from seeing or from being able to steer the vehicle, nor in in $teering wheel and the instrument panel front of the does it stop people from leaving the vehicle. .;rightfront passenger air bag is designed to inflatein a moderate to severe frontal or near-fiontal crash. The bag will inflate only air How does an air bag,restrain? In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,