Where to Put the RestraintAccident statistics show that children are safer if theyare restrained in the rear rather than the front seat.We recommend that children and child restraintsbe secured in a rear seat, including: an infant or a childriding in a rear-facing child restraint; a child riding ina forward-facing child seat; an older child riding ina booster seat; and children, who are large enough,using safety belts.A label on your sun visor says, “Never put a rear-facingchild seat in the front.” This is because the risk to therear-facing child is so great, if the airbag deploys.{CAUTION:A child in a rear-facing child restraint can beseriously injured or killed if the right frontpassenger’s airbag inflates. This is becausethe back of the rear-facing child restraintwould be very close to the inflating airbag.Even though the passenger sensing system isdesigned to turn off the right front passenger’sfrontal airbag if the system detects arear-facing child restraint, no system isfail-safe, and no one can guarantee that anairbag will not deploy under some unusualcircumstance, even though it is turned off. Werecommend that rear-facing child restraints besecured in a rear seat, even if the airbag is off.If you secure a forward-facing child restraint inthe right front seat, always move the frontpassenger seat as far back as it will go. It isbetter to secure the child restraint in a rear seat.See Passenger Sensing System on page 1-85for additional information.1-60
