Seat Leon 2005, Owner'S Manual, Page: 40 / 277

Airbag system 39
Safety First Handling instructions Tips and Maintenance Technical Data
Function of side airbags
Inflated airbags can reduce the risk of head or chest injury in
many side impact collisions.
In some side collisions the side airbag is triggered on the impact side of the
vehicle
⇒
fig. 22 .
In certain types of accident the front, curtain and side airbags may be trig-
gered together.
When the system is triggered, the airbag is filled with propellant gas.
In order to provide the desired extra protection in an accident, the airbags
have to deploy extremely rapidly (within fractions of a second). A fine dust
may develop when the airbag deploys. This is normal and is no indication
that there was a fire in the vehicle.
The fully deployed airbags cushion the movement of the occupants of the
front seats and help to reduce the risk of injury to the upper body.
The special design of the airbag allows the controlled escape of the propel-
lant gas when an occupant puts pressure on the bag. Thus, the head and
chest are surrounded and protected by the airbag.
Fig. 22 Illustration of
principle: inflated side
airbags on left side of
vehicle
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