Essential Safety Equipment; Seat Belt Systems; Load Limiting Systems- Page 16

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Essential Safety Equipment

Seat Belt Systems

Form No. 8S15-EA-03G

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Unfastening the Seat Belts

Depress the button on the buckle.

To secure the passenger's seat belt when 
not in use, insert the belt tongue into the 
slot.

For optimum protection, the driver and 
passenger seat belts are equipped with 
pretensioner and load limiting systems.
In moderate or greater frontal or near-
frontal accidents, the air bag and 
pretensioner systems deploy 
simultaneously. The pretensioners take up 
slack in the seat belts as the air bags are 
expanding. The seat belt pretensioner 
system will only activate when a front seat 
belt is properly fastened around the 
occupant. The load limiting system 
releases belt webbing in a controlled 
manner to reduce belt force on the 
occupant’s chest.

NOTE

If a belt does not fully retract, inspect it 
for kinks and twists. If it is still not 
retracting properly, have it inspected at 
an Authorized Mazda Dealer.

Seat Belt Pretensioner and 
Load Limiting Systems

Incorrect Positioning of the Driver 
and Passenger Seat Belts:
Incorrect positioning of the driver 
and passenger seat belts is dangerous. 
Without proper positioning, the 
pretensioner and load limiting 
systems cannot provide adequate 
protection in an accident and this 
could result in serious injury. Wear 
seat belts only as recommended in 
this owner’s manual.

WARNING

J07S_8S15-EA-03G_Edition2.book  Page 8  Thursday, August 21, 2003  10:04 AM