Preity Zinta shows the way

April 16, Jaipur
A man, his wife and two children were riding on a bike, when they were struck from behind by a truck. The woman and her eight-month-old daughter lay dead on the street in Jaipur, while her husband, who survived, begged for help — but none of the passing vehicles stopped. The CCTV footage shows that the woman’s husband and his four-year-old son beseeching passers-by for help. The survivor, Kanhaiyalal Raigher, tried to call relatives from his mobile, but failed as there was no network connectivity in the tunnel.

April 21, Mumbai
A man was crossing the road, when he was struck by a white ambulance. The driver sped off without stopping to help the victim. Actress Preity Zinta who was on the way to the airport to go to Punjab to attend her team, Kings X11’s match, chased the ambulance, got the vehicle number and called the police. She  wrote a series of posts on Twitter followed by a picture of the vehicle involved, giving its registration number.

Let’s just say that if there were more concerned citizens like Preity Zinta in this country, we’d be a better nation. Later, the actress checked on the condition of the man who was run over — and fortunately survived the accident. The actress talks about the fateful day, “The day had started weirdly as my own driver had an accident and I had to hire a temporary one to take me to the airport.

I had decided to go one hour earlier and was on the highway when suddenly this elderly man came from nowhere and started to cross the road! The ambulance, which was going full speed ahead of us, hit the man. My car had to swerve to avoid a collision. I was wearing a seat belt at the back but I still got a whiplash on my neck.

The car behind us also braked. The man just flew up in the air and was dragged forward after he was hit. I think he was distributing wedding invites which fell all around him.

Luckily he wasn’t in front of my car. If my car had hit him, the whole world would have turned and pointed accusingly at me saying, ‘actors are like this only.’ It’s sad when anything goes wrong the fingers are pointed to actors first.

The good samaritan
I was about to get down from my car to see if the man was okay. My friend, who was with me, was telling me we would miss the flight and I couldn’t afford to do that as it was the last flight. What I saw next was terrible! The ambulance just took off after hitting the man. I told my driver to chase the ambulance to stop it but the driver zipped! I was shocked that he could zip so fast.

I rolled down my window and yelled at the ambulance driver to stop. There were some people sitting inside the van. When they didn’t stop, I asked my driver to follow him. I was literally half out of my car window but  I managed to take a picture of the number plate and tweeted it immediately so that some alert citizen could take action. Then I called the cops in the control room and gave the number. As much as I hate phone cameras they are  useful at times like this...”

Not a cop out
Preity says, “I was shaking through the flight after the accident.” But she was concerned enough to follow up on the accident victim. She spoke to Vishwas Nagre Patil (ACP Mumbai), “He’s the original super cop of Mumbai and gave me a full account of what happened.

I am grateful to him for keeping me in the loop. I wanted to know what happened to the accident victim, after almost killing myself (laughs wryly) in the chase! I heard they arrested the ambulance driver. God bless the poor man who was hit. I didn’t think he would survive after the way he went up in the air. I heard he suffered multiple fractures. I prayed for him...”

When cheered for her kind act, Preity brushes it off with, “It was a normal thing to do. I don’t consider it to be a great act. It’s just being human.  Every citizen should do things like this. Abroad, everybody stops and helps accident victims. It’s the most normal thing to do there, unlike here, sadly. But here, I guess it’s difficult as people usually are scared of getting dragged into a police case. It’s not just about being a socially aware citizen. It’s about doing what you would want others to do for you and when that doesn’t happen, it upsets me.

When I hear about a woman getting molested or somebody in an accident with people just walking by, I feel it is inhuman. If each of us made a small effort in our own way so many lives could be saved. Even the police, they are human beings and they need a system like the ones in the West. I was driving in Los Angeles with a girlfriend when a car in front of us just swerved. My friend immediately called cops to say there was a drunk driver on the roads. Even in India my friend’s French girlfriend refused to sit in the car with him after he had two drinks. She insisted on him parking his car and taking a cab.”

Preity says to prevent such hit-and-run accidents the city should have a public awareness campaign. “We could have big ads across the highway saying you are legally liable for nothing if you cross the highway in the middle endangering the other drivers too.

My friends make fun of me when I wear a seatbelt even when I am sitting in the backseat of a car, as they do abroad, but if I wasn’t wearing one, that day, my head would have been smashed! Our cops do an amazing job but even super cops need help. We need to do public service campaigns. I would be happy to do them free of cost.  Unless people are educated and safety provisions are made for the highway these things may continue to happen.”