Uttarayan sees 29% more emergencies

Uttarayan turned out to be a damp squib for many. Blame the wind for being lazy. However, the silene of the breeze didn't help in putting a check on cases of emergencies. Against an expected increase of 16%, emergencies in the state shot to around 21% (approximately).

According to a data released by GVK EMRI 108 Emergency Service, against 2,920 emergency cases reported across the state on a normal day, 3527 cases were reported on January— an increase by 607. However, experts had said that the number won't go beyond 3387. In Ahmedabad, emergency cases rose by 29% (rounded off) on the day of Uttarayan, against an expected rise of 26%.

While the city recorded 618 cases, the district recorded the highest number of emergency cases in terms of absolute numbers at 618 cases. The number of emergency cases recorded in the city on a normal day is 477, the expected rise was 601. The lowest number was recorded by The Dangs and Botad with each recording just 30 cases.

Giving an insight to the shocking data, Jashvant Prajapati — COO of GVK EMRI?Gujarat — said, "The weather was not very favourable for flying kites this Uttarayan. If you look at the data for injuries being reported that took place before Uttarayan, such as vehicular and non-vehicular trauma, are quite high. One can perhaps then hazard a guess that more people choose to move travel rather than flying kites. This might have led to higher than expected emergencies," said Prajapati. Thirteen of the 33 districts in Gujarat saw the number of emergency cases lower than expected.

The highest number of cases was recorded in Narmada, with a rise of 40%. The expected spurt in emergency for the district was in the negative (ie the number of emergencies were expected to be lower than normal days). The district, which was expected to receive 46 emergency cases on January 14, registered 76 cases.

The two-wheeler-related accidents rose from 320, on a normal day, to 699, on Sunday.