child restraint CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 1997 Owners Manual

Section 1 Seats and Restraint Systems
Here you’ll find information about the seats in your vehicle and how to use your safety belts properly. You can also
learn about some things you should
nut do with air bags and safety belts.
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1-38 Seats and Seat Controls
Safety Belts:
They’re for Everyone
Here Are Questions Many People
Ask About
Safety Belts
-- and the Answers
How to Wear Safety Belts Properly
Driver Position
Safety Belt Use During Pregnancy
Right Front Passenger Position
Supplemental Inflatable Restraint System
Center Passenger Position 1-39
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1-62 Rear Seat Passengers
Rear Safety Belt Comfort
Guides for Children
and Small Adults
Children
Child Restraints
Larger Children Safety Belt Extender
Checking Your Restraint Systems
Replacing Restraint System Parts
After a Crash
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If I’m a good driver, and I never drive far from
home, why should
I wear safety belts?
A: You may be an excellent driver, but if you’re in an
accident
-- even one that isn’t your fault -- you and
your passengers can be hurt. Being a good driver
doesn’t protect you from things beyond your
control, such as bad drivers.
Most accidents occur within
25 miles (40 km)
of home. And the greatest number of serious
injuries and deaths occur at speeds of less than
40 mph (65 kmh).
Safety belts are for everyone.
How to Wear Safety Belts Properly
Adults
This part is only for people of adult size.
Be aware that there
are special things to know about
safety belts and children. And there are different rules
for smaller children and babies. If a child will be riding
in your vehicle, see the part of this manual called
“Children.” Follow those rules for everyone’s
protection.
First, you’ll want to know which restraint systems your
vehicle has.
We’ll start with
the driver position.
Driver Position
This part describes the driver’s restraint system.
Lap-Shoulder Belt
The driver has a lap-shoulder belt. Here’s how to wear it
properly.
1. Close and lock the door.
2. Adjust the seat (to see how, see “Seats” in the Index)
so you can sit up straight.
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The best way to protect the fetus is to protect the
mother. When a safety belt is worn properly, it’s more
likely that the fetus won’t be hurt in a crash. For
pregnant women, as for anyone, the key to making
safety belts effective is wearing them properly.
Right Front Passenger Position
The right front passenger’s safety belt works the same
way as the driver’s safety belt. See “Driver Position”
earlier in this section.
When the lap belt is pulled out all the way,
it will lock.
(This is the child restraint locking feature working
normally.) If the belt locks, let it
go back all the way
and start again.
Supplemental Inflatable
Restraint System
This part explains the Supplemental Inflatable Restraint
system or air bag system.
Your vehicle has two air bags
-- one air bag for the
driver and another air bag for the right front passenger. Here are the most
important things to know about the air
bag system:
You can be severely injured or killed in a crash if
you aren’t wearing your safety belt
-- even if you
have air bags. Wearing your safety belt during
a
crash helps reduce your chance of hitting things
inside the vehicle or being ejected from it. Air
bags are “supplemental restraints’’ to the safety
belts.
All air bags are designed to work with
safety belts, but don’t replace them. Air
bags are
designed to work only in moderate to severe
crashes where the front of your vehicle hits
something. They aren’t designed to inflate at all
in rollover, rear, side or low-speed frontal
crashes. Everyone in your vehicle should wear
a
safety belt properly -- whether or not there’s an
air bag for that person.
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Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for Children and Small Adults
Your vehicle may have rear shoulder belt comfort
guides. This feature will provide added safety belt
comfort for children who have outgrown child restraints
and for small adults. When installed
on a shoulder belt,
the comfort guide pulls the belt away from the neck
and head.
There is one guide for each outside passenger position
in the rear seat.
To provide added safety belt comfort
for children who have outgrown child restraints and
for smaller adults, the comfort guides may be installed
on the shoulder belts. Here’s how to install a comfort
guide and use the safety belt:
1. Remove the guide from its storage clip on the side of
the seatback.
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Children
Everyone in a vehicle needs protection! That includes
infants and all children smaller than adult size.
In fact,
the law
in every state in the United States and in every
Canadian province says children up to some age must be
restrained while in a vehicle.
Smaller Children and Babies
A CAUTION:
Smaller children and babies should always be
restrained in
a child or infant restraint. The
instructions for the restraint will
say whether it is
the right type and size for your child.
A very
young child’s hip bones are
so small that a
regular belt might not stay low on the hips, as it
should. Instead, the belt will likely be over the
child’s abdomen. In
a crash, the belt would apply
force right on the child’s abdomen, which could
cause serious or fatal injuries.
So, be sure that
any child small enough for one is always properly
restrained in a child or infant restraint.
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Child Restraints
Be sure the child restraint is designed to be used in a
vehicle. If it is, it will have a label saying that
it meets
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Then follow the instructions for the restraint. You may
find these instructions on the restraint itself or in a
booklet, or both. These restraints use the belt system in
your vehicle, but the child also has to be secured within
the restraint to help reduce the chance
of personal injury.
The instructions that come with the infant or child
restraint will show
you how to do that.
Where to Put the Restraint
Accident statistics show that children are safer if they
are restrained in the rear rather than the front seat.
We at General Motors therefore recommend that you
put your child restraint in a rear seat.
Never put a
rear-facing child restraint in the right front passenger
seat. Here’s why:
A child in a rear-facing child restraint can be
seriously injured if the right front passenger’s air
bag inflates. This is because the back of
a
rearfacing child restraint would be very close to
the inflating air bag. Always secure
a rear-facing
child restraint in
a rear seat.
You may, however, secure a forward-facing child
restraint in the right front seat. Before you secure
1 a forward-facing child restraint, always move the
front passenger seat as far back as it will
go. Or,
secure the child restraint in a rear seat.
Wherever you install it, be sure to secure the child
restraint properly.
Keep in mind that an unsecured child restraint can move
around in a collision or sudden stop and injure people in
the vehicle. Be sure to properly secure any child
restraint in your vehicle
-- even when no child is in it.
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Top Strap
If your child restraint has a top strap, it should be
anchored.
If you need to have an anchor installed, you
can ask your
GM dealer to put it in for you. If you want
to install an anchor yourself, your dealer can tell
you
how to do it.
Securing a Child Restraint in a Rear
Outside Seat Position
You’ll be using the lap-shoulder belt. See the earlier part
about the top strap if the child restraint has one.
1. Put the restraint on the seat. Follow the instructions
for the child restraint.
2. Secure the child in the child restraint as the
instructions say.
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3. Pick up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicle’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show you how.
If the shoulder belt goes in front of the child’s face or
neck, put it behind the child restraint.
P
p:
5. Pull the rest of the shoulder belt all the way out of
the retractor to set the lock.
4. Buckle the belt. Make sure the release button is
positioned
so you would be able to unbuckle the
safety belt quickly
if you ever had to.
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6. To tighten the belt, feed the shoulder belt back
into the retractor while you push down on the
child restraint.
7. Push and pull the child restraint in different
To remove the child restraint, just unbuckle the vehicle’s
safety belt and let it go back
ail the way. The safety belt
will move freely again and be ready to work for an adult
or larger child passenger. directions to be sure it is secure.
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Securing a Child Restraint in a Center
Seat Position
You’ll be using the lap belt.
See the earlier part about the top strap if the child
restraint has one. 1. Make the belt as long as possible by tilting the latch
plate and pulling
it along the belt.
2. Put the restraint on the seat. Follow the instructions
for the child restraint.
3. Secure the child in the child restraint as the
instructions say.
4. Run the vehicle’s safety belt through or around the
restraint. The child restraint instructions will show
you how.
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