Safety & Theft Prevention Tips
Child Car Seat Carrier Information
When children are small, they need love and protection. And while riding in the car, they need a little extra love and protection like a specially-designed car seat. Holding children in your lap or letting children roam free can be risky, not just in a crash, but during emergency stops as well. Even at speeds considered moderate (10 to 30 miles per hour) crashes are so sudden and so deceivingly powerful that infants and young children are exposed to instant injury and pain. No one is strong enough to protect a child from injury in an emergency. Only a car seat designed for the job is able to afford children the protection that they need.
Throughout the state, young Kentucky families are buckling their young children into safe, secure car seats every time they get into the car. Crash-resistant car seats are strong, lightweight, convenient, and simple to use, as well as being comfortable for your child.
Putting your children in specially designed car seats will give them the security and protection that they need while giving you the warm feeling that comes with knowing that your child is safe and secure.
Infant Carriers:
Safety infant carriers are specifically-designed for little babies - birth to 20 pounds. These carriers are usually tub-shaped to comfortably cradle your baby in a semi-reclined position. They are made of durable, energy-absorbing material and are lined with thick, shock-absorbing foam padding. Easy-to-use harness straps attach over the shoulders and around the body to keep your baby snug and secure. Public Safety has a loaner seat that may be used on a temporary basis.
Crime Awareness Programs
The University Office of Student Life utilizes both on-campus and off-campus resources to make students aware of the dangers they may encounter throughout their college experience.
The MSU Police Department presents regularly scheduled programs at orientations and in residence halls promoting crime prevention and security awareness. Topics include theft, rape, drugs and alcohol. Crime reporting is stressed in all programs presented by the MSU Police Department. Engravers are made available for students, faculty, and staff to engrave valuable personal property.
A crime alert program provides for residence hall notices to be posted in specific threat areas and media releases on generalized threats to the campus population. Media releases will be made in coordination with the Office of Media Relations.
Campus Fire
What should you do if you discover a fire?
Should you discover SMOKE or FIRE or hear the fire alarm:
- Dial 911
- Pull the fire alarm, if not already sounding
- Notify other persons on your way out IMMEDIATELY LEAVE BUILDING BY MEANS OF NEAREST AVAILABLE EXIT
- Before opening door, see if it is hot by placing the palm of your hand against it. a. If hot, remain in room.
- If you are on ground floor level, CAREFULLY exit through window, if possible.
- If on upper floor, call 911 and notify dispatcher of room number.
- Block entrance of smoke and heat into room by stuffing towels or blankets around door.
- Stay low near floor to avoid smoke and heat. Open window, DO NOT exit onto ledges.
- REMAIN CALM. Firefighters will get to you as soon as possible.
- If the door is cool, open slightly and check for smoke in corridor.
- If clear, proceed to nearest available exit (exterior door or stairwell).
- Stay low near floor to avoid smoke and heat.
- Close doors on your way out.
- If corridor is too smoky to reach stairway or exit, remain in room.
- When leaving building, get well clear of entire area.
Bicycle Safety & Theft Prevention
Here are some suggestions which may help you in preventing a bike theft:
- Use a cable or chain at least 3/8 in diameter.
- Use a key lock with a 3/8 hardened shackle with heel and toe locking.
- Pull up all slack in the cable or chain and make sure the lock is as high off the ground as possible.
Report Suspicious Activity:
Particularly persons loitering around bike racks. We just LOVE to catch bike thieves. Help us get them before they get your bike.
Ride Safely:
When you ride your bike on a campus sidewalk, you must to yield to pedestrians. Some off-campus sidewalk areas with heavy pedestrian traffic are signed prohibiting riding bicycles on the sidewalk. When you ride on the road, your bike is a vehicle and you must obey traffic laws.
Scan the road behind:
Learn to look back over your shoulder without losing your balance or swerving left. Some riders use helmet-mounted or bike-mounted rear-view mirrors. Always look back before changing lanes or changing positions within your lane, and only move when no other vehicle is in your way. Go slowly on sidewalks and bike paths.
Pedestrians have the right-of-way:
Give pedestrians audible (horn/bell/word) warning when you pass. Don't cross driveways or intersect ions without slowing to walker's pace and looking very carefully for traffic, especially traffic turning right.
When on the road, ride in a straight line whenever possible. Ride with not against, the traffic. Keep to the right, but stay about a car-door-width away from parked cars. Avoid road hazards. Watch out for parallel-slat sewer grates, slippery manhole covers, oily pavement, gravel and ice.
By law, cyclists must obey traffic laws when bicycles are ridden on streets and roads within the State of Kentucky. Ride a properly equipped bike. Always use a strong headlight and taillight at night and when visibility is poor.
Tornado & Severe Storm Safety Tips
Morehead State University and its Department of Public Safety are very concerned about the safety and well-being of everyone associated with MSU's campus community. A tornado is destructive when it descends to earth, where its path may vary from 100 yards to one mile in width. Its forward speed will average 25 to 40 miles per hour. The following instructions for different areas and situations should be studied:
If you are in the open: Move at right angles to the tornado. Attempt to reach shelter such as a building with a basement. If there is not time to escape or find shelter, lie flat in a ditch or depression, avoiding areas subject to rapid water accumulation or flooding in heavy rains. If you are in class: The instructor shall dismiss the class immediately, after advising students to proceed to a lower level hallway or basement of the building or to the nearest substantially-constructed building if the facility being used is not suitable for shelter space.
If you are attending a university function: The function will be terminated at once, and the participants advised promptly to take shelter on the ground floor away from glass or in the basement of the building. If the function is being held in a gymnasium, auditorium or cafeteria, the area should be evacuated immediately and the occupants instructed to proceed to the nearest substantially-constructed building.
TORNADO SIRENS
The city of Morehead maintains a citywide Civil Defense warning siren network that is used to signal imminent danger from tornados. A steady siren for three to five minutes means IMMINENT DANGER. Take shelter immediately in the nearest suitable shelter space. Shelter space should be identified in advance. Once the sirens sound, it is too late to seek shelter at a remote location!
WEATHER ADVISORIES (& ALL-CLEAR SIGNALS)
The National Weather Service broadcasts continuous weather status and forecast information. It is recommended that all persons maintain a battery-operated AM and/or FM transistor radio, and take that radio with them should it become necessary to seek shelter from a tornado or other severe storm.
Persons in shelter spaces should not rely on visual observations of local conditions as a reliable indicator of the true status of the weather, since hail and tornados have been known to occur under apparently clear-sky conditions.
SHELTER SPACE
Safe shelter from a tornado may be sought in virtually any building of substantial masonry construction; almost all University facilities meet basic shelter criteria. The lowest level of the building should be used, avoiding spaces with glass surfaces on any outside wall; doors can usually be arranged to augment protection. Buildings of frame construction and those with broad, flat roofs or large open interior spaces (such as auditoriums, cafeterias, or gymnasiums) should not be used as shelter. Many such areas, however, have adjacent service spaces (such as corridors, walk-in coolers, or showers) which are reasonably safe.
RESIDENCE HALLS
Suitable shelter space has been identified within each university housing center. To protect persons using these spaces against airborne debris, particularly glass and wood splinters, all doors opening into the spaces should be closed while in use for shelter.
The Results of Speeding
Think Fast... What costs society $44,193 a minute? (answer) ... check your speedometer as you drive home! Exceeding the posted limit or driving too fast for conditions is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. Speed is a factor in nearly one-third of all fatal crashes. Speed-related crashes cost society more than $23 billion a year.
Too few drivers view speeding as an immediate risk to their personal safety or the safety of others. Yet, speeding reduces a driver's ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, and it extends the distance required to stop a vehicle in emergency situations. Crash severity increases with the speed of the vehicle at impact. Inversely, the effectiveness of restraint devices like air bags and safety belts, and vehicular construction features such as crumple zones and side member beams decline as impact speed increases.
The probability of death, disfigurement, or debilitating injury grows with higher speed at impact. Such consequences double for every 10 mph over 50 mph that a vehicle travels. Many drivers don't consider this. They slow their speed in residential areas, or when the weather turns bad. To them, a few miles an hour over the posted speed limit is an acceptable risk. Their excuse -- other drivers do it. They believe the worst that can happen to them is to receive a speeding ticket. Drivers like this are wrong. Maybe even dead wrong, because driving too fast for conditions or exceeding the posted speed limit can kill you.
Consider These Speed-Related Facts:
- Rural roads account for over 60 percent of all speed-related fatal crashes.
- Sixty six percent of speed-related crashes involved a single vehicle.
- Sixty percent of all speed- related fatal crashes occurred at night (6 pm to 6 am).
- Drivers involved in speed-related fatal crashes are more likely to have a history of traffic violations.
- On average, 1,000 Americans are killed every month in speed-related crashes.
Youth and Speeding:
Of all drivers aged 15-24 years of age involved in fatal crashes, 32 percent were speeding. Of drivers under age 21 involved in fatal crashes, 38 percent of the male and 24 percent of the female drivers were speeding. Economic and Environmental Costs of speeding Fuel consumption increases steadily above 45 mph with passenger cars and light trucks using approximately 50 percent more fuel traveling at 75 mph than they do at 55 mph.
