How Does an Airbag Restrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near frontal collisions, even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or the instrument panel. In moderate to severe side collisions, even belted occupants can contact the inside of the vehicle.
Airbags supplement the protection provided by safety belts by distributing the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant's body.
Rollover capable roof-rail airbags are designed to help contain the head and chest of occupants in the outboard seating positions in the first and second rows. The rollover capable roof-rail airbags are designed to help reduce the risk of full or partial ejection in rollover events, although no system can prevent all such ejections.
But airbags would not help in many types of collisions, primarily because the occupant's motion is not toward those airbags. See When Should an Airbag Inflate? for more information.
Airbags should never be regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety belts.
See also:
Manual Reclining Seatbacks
WARNING:
You can lose control of the vehicle if you try to
adjust a manual driver’s seat while the vehicle is
moving. The sudden movement could startle and
confuse you, or make you push a ped ...
Side Blind Zone Alert (SBZA)
For vehicles with this feature, it may alert you to
vehicles located in your side blind zone. When the
system detects a vehicle in the side blind zone, an SBZA
display will light up in the corre ...
Lower Anchors
Lower anchors (A) are metal bars built into the vehicle. There are two lower anchors for each LATCH seating position that will accommodate a child restraint with lower attachments (B). ...