2000 Mercedes SL-Class Owner's Manual - Page 67

In cases of other frontal impacts, angled impacts, roll-overs, other side impacts, rear collisions, or other accidents in which the airbags are not designed to deploy, the airbags will not be activated. The driver and passenger will then be protected by the fastened seat belts. We caution you not to rely on the presence of the airbags in order to avoid wearing your seat belt. Your vehicle was originally equipped with airbags which are designed to activate in certain impacts exceeding a preset threshold to reduce the potential and severity of injury. It is important to your safety and that of your passenger that you replace deployed airbags and repair any malfunctioning airbags to ensure the vehicle will continue to provide crash protections for occupants. Warning! Airbags are designed to reduce the potential of injury in certain frontal (front airbags) impacts, and side (side impact airbags) impacts which may cause significant injuries, however, no system available today can totally eliminate injuries and fatalities. The activation of the "SRS" temporarily releases a small amount of dust from the airbags. This dust, however, is neither injurious to your health, nor does it indicate a fire in the vehicle. The dust might cause some temporary breathing difficulty for people with asthma or other breathing trouble. To avoid this, you may wish to get out of the vehicle as soon as it is safe to do so. If you have any breathing difficulty but cannot get out of the vehicle after the airbag inflates, then get fresh air by opening a window or door. The service life of the airbags extends to the date indicated on the label located on the driverside door latch post. To provide continued reliability after that date, they should be inspected by an authorized Mercedes-Benz Center at that time and replaced when necessary. Restraint systems Instruments and controls Operation Driving Instrument cluster display 63 Practical hints Car care Technical data Index