UK police focusing on campus safety after recent crashes

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The University of Kentucky is looking at ways to make campus safer for pedestrians.

Safety is critical for officials at the University of Kentucky, but traffic safety will get an extra emphasis going forward.

“Recently, we had two serious accidents that involved pedestrians, so that reinforces our commitment to educating our campus community,” said UK Chief of Police Joe Monroe.

Monroe says that the university will be pushing out safety tips to remind everyone on campus to stay aware.

“Both on main campus and on our medical campus through email, social media, digital signboards,” said Monroe. " We are going to be looking at this from a multi-pronged approach. We’ll” be looking at it from raising the awareness to what are the types of infrastructure changes we need to work with our transportation services and our community on to one make sure pedestrians are safe, and our drivers are safe.”

Monroe says that it’s not just pedestrians that need to be on the lookout; it’s drivers too. Any distraction, even a glance at your phone, could be potentially dangerous.

“You know, if somebody is running a red light or they’re disregarding a traffic control device, then we’re going to be issuing citations for that,” said Monroe. “We saw a pedestrian that got struck after a car ran a red light to try to beat that red light, so that’s why we’re doing a multi-pronged approach on this.”

Monroe says one of the biggest things you can do to avoid an accident is to be aware. Put away distractions while you’re behind the wheel or crossing the street and get where you’re going safely.

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