BMW X3 3.0i SAV 2004 - Manual (Page 36)

Transporting children safely
34
Transporting children safely
The right place for children
Children always in the rear
Accident research shows that the safest
place for children in a vehicle is in the rear
seat.
Older children should be tightly secured
with a safety belt, after they have outgrown
a booster seat that is appropriate for their
age, height and weight.
A child sitting in the rear seat and not
properly restrained may place his or
her head on or near the airbag, if so
equipped. For example, a child — even
though belted — may fall asleep with his or
her head against the side airbag. It may be
difficult for a driver to ensure that children
in the rear seat will remain properly posi-
tioned at all times and do not place their
heads on or near the side airbag. There-
fore, we recommend that the rear side air-
bags, if provided, be deactivated if you plan
to transport children in the rear seat.
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Deactivation of the rear seat side
airbags
The rear seat side airbags may already
have been deactivated by a BMW Sports
Activity Vehicle Center. Labels in the rear
door opening should indicate the status of
your rear seat side airbags. If you are
uncertain of their status, or wish to have the
airbags activated or deactivated, please
contact your BMW Sports Activity Vehicle
Center.
Child-restraint system in rear
Children under 13 years of age and
children less than 5 ft/150 cm tall
should always ride in the rear and the
restraint systems should be properly
adjusted.
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Younger children should be secured in an
appropriate forward-facing child-restraint
system that has first been properly secured
with a safety belt.
All rear seating positions in your vehicle
meet the recommendations of SAE J1819,
an industry-recommended practice for
securing child-restraint systems in motor
vehicles.
Exception for the front passenger
seat
Should it become necessary to use a
child-restraint system on the front
passenger seat, the airbags on the passen-
ger's side must be deactivated. The pas-
senger airbag indicator lamp above the
interior rearview mirror must light up con-
tinuously. Otherwise, the front passenger
airbags remain active and there is consid-
erable risk of injury to children if the airbags
are triggered, even with a child-restraint
system. In this case, children should be
seated in the rear and the system should be
checked at your BMW Sport Activity Vehi-
cle Center.
<
Never install a rearward-facing child-
restraint system in the front passen-
ger seat of this vehicle if the passenger air-
bag is not deactivated. If you do so, the
child could be severely injured when the
airbag is triggered.
Your vehicle is equipped with an airbag
supplemental restraint system for the front
passenger. Because the backrest on any
rearward-facing child-restraint system – of
the kind designed for infants under 1 year
and 20 Ibs/9 kg – would be within the air-
bag's deployment range, you should never
mount such a system in the front passenger
seat, since the impact of the airbag against
the child restraint's backrest could lead to
serious or fatal injuries.<
More information on automatic deactiva-
tion of the front passenger airbags, refer to
page 55.
Online Edition for Part No. 01 41 0 157 631 - © 07/03 BMW AG