Dodge 2008 Sprinter - Manual (Page 46)

44
Safety
Occupant safety
2
Vehicle deceleration or acceleration and
the direction of the force are essentially
determined by:
ț the distribution of the force during
the impact
ț the collision angle
ț the deformation characteristics of
the vehicle
ț the composition of the object in-
volved in the collision, for example
the other vehicle
Factors that cannot be seen or mea-
sured until after the collision are not
used to determine whether the airbag
should be triggered and are not decisive
for this.
The vehicle may be substantially deformed
without an airbag being triggered, for ex-
ample if only relatively easily-deformable
vehicle parts such as the hood or fenders
are affected by the collision and the re-
quired deceleration threshold is not
reached. On the other hand, airbags may
be triggered even though the vehicle only
displays minor deformation, if, for exam-
ple, rigid vehicle parts such as a longitudi-
nal member are affected by the impact,
thus causing vehicle deceleration to ex-
ceed the pre-determined threshold. Emergency tensioning retractors,
belt force limiters
If the vehicle is equipped with a driver’s
airbag, the driver’s and the passenger’s
seat belts are equipped with emergency
tensioning retractors.
A belt force limiter additionally installed
in the seat belt reduces the load exerted
by the seat belt on the occupant when it
is triggered.
Emergency tensioning retractors ten-
sion the seat belts in an accident, pulling
them close against the body.
nf_BA.book Page 44 Friday, January 25, 2008 3:53 PM