Reported By:
| Edited By: Rohit Gandhi |Source: DNA |Updated: Jun 13, 2016, 02:28 PM IST
The car came to a screeching halt. The motorcycle which had turned in from a side road had swayed right in front of the car. Travelling at a speed of around 80km/h, there wasn't much time for the driver to react. The vehicle rammed into the motorcycle, the boy riding the motorcycle literally flew into the air and landed on the bonnet of the car. He was now bleeding profusely from the corner of his temple. The driver of the car was swift, he got out and knew this was not going to be pretty. He grabbed the boy and threw him into the car. The people, who were standing by, offered him some help and off they were on their way. This is not a usual scene, but this may have turned out to be one of those instances when the boy would probably live to tell the tale. Most of the time, people try to get away, either from the fury of the bystanders who turn into a mob or the policemen who think this is their time to extract their pound of flesh.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, last year alone more than two lakh people lost their lives on the roads in India. The number may be very high but on the flip side these deaths are preventable, provided the authorities concerned are spurred into action.
There are three steps in the chain of survival of an accident/trauma victim: the response of the bystanders, ambulatory care and in-hospital care. After an accident, the first hour is the golden hour for the patient and in most of the cases in India, we lose this golden hour as our chain of survival is severely broken. Apart from the fear of helping a patient, most of the people in our country are not trained in the basic medical aid that can be given to a trauma victim at the site itself, thus, losing those extra crucial minutes for the victim's survival.
There is no ambulatory code in the country defining the response time of ambulances, number of trained paramedics in each vehicle, necessary equipment in the ambulance etc. All this is essential for the stabilisation of the victim while getting transferred to the hospital. Saji Cherian of SaveLIFE Foundation says, "When a highway/expressway is under the concessionaire, he/she is supposed to provide basic ambulance service which usually does not have a medical oversight questioning the effectiveness of the entire service."
The third link of our chain is equally dysfunctional. In a city like Delhi with a population of over 1.6 crore (2011 census), there are only two hospitals with well-equipped trauma care centres, AIIMS and RML. In 90% of the non-trauma hospitals in the country, the doctors are not trained to handle basic trauma. A course in trauma care called ATLS just takes three days, costing merely Rs25,000. Dr Dapkekar of Deccan Multi Specialty Trauma Centre in Pune says, "We tried arranging for free trauma care courses for the doctors but very few came forward to do the course. It is not law but awareness among people and strong lobbying that would force doctors to do such courses."
If we have strong post-accident response system, a large number of deaths due to road crashes can surely be avoided. In 2012, SaveLIFE Foundation filed a PIL to protect a person who helps an accident victim from legal hassles, unnecessary harassment etc. In March 2016, the Supreme Court issued 'Good Samaritan Guidelines' to safeguard any bystander who helps. This is a positive move but immense amount of awareness needs to be created among people as well as government agencies. Since road transport is a state subject, every state needs to implement a corresponding law for making our first link of the chain of survival stronger.
As Saji Cherian rightly says, "Since Article 21 of the Constitution gives every citizen the Right to Life, then every citizen has the Right to Emergency Services as well."
It is true that the post-accident response system in India is handicapped but an important question to ask is whether these accidents are preventable in the first place? As the statistics show, around 30% of the accidents in India are caused due to heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses and tempos.
Such accidents caused due to heavy vehicles are due to non-existence of an adequate law and high level of corruption among transporters and RTO offices. According to a 2007 report by Transparency International, over Rs20,000 crore is given in bribes at the national and state highways in India at checkpoints, plazas etc for overloading of vehicles, parking vehicles in no parking zones, octroi, sales tax and related issues.
Overloading of vehicles is a major problem in India. Transporters earn more per overloaded vehicle than otherwise, the consignees save money as they get more in less and the RTO offices stash away huge amounts of bribe. However, overloading of a vehicle reduces the ability to apply brakes for a truck driver and severely damages the roads endangering the life of a truck driver and other people/vehicles on the roads.
According to a small transporter in Punjab, on an average, he pays Rs50,000 to the RTO office per month for his 20 trucks. In exchange of this, his vehicles get a pass to cross interstate at pre-decided check posts and he does not get penalised for overloading his vehicles. The transporter said that in the long run, there is no benefit in overloading vehicles as the longevity of tyres and the vehicle itself is reduced to a great extent. But one transporter can't do anything. The competition is so fierce that if others are doing it, then they are also forced to engage in wrong practices. Also, almost 80% of the transport sector is unorganised, blatantly flouting the existing laws.
The legislation governing road safety and subsequent penalisation is the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. It has been 27 years since the Act was introduced and deaths due to road crashes have increased by 300%. Every hour that the government delays introduction of a new law, 15 people lose their lives.
Thus, India is in a serious need of a new and stricter Road Safety Law to prevent deaths and injuries caused due to road crashes.
If we have the Right to demand Emergency Services or a new Road Safety law, then it is the responsibility of each person driving on the road to follow rules and drive safely.
Most are unaware of some basic rules of driving. You don't ever block an intersection; the driver in the circle has right of way over the person entering it; you let a pedestrian or a cyclist cross the street even if they are jaywalking or are not in the right street; lights need to be dipped to drive; you honk only to tell the other vehicle that you are breaking the law; when you are entering from a side road the person on the main road has right of way.
As can be observed, there are various stakeholders involved when it comes to road mishaps in India and the causes are indeed preventable. As Aahana Dhar, SaveLIFE Foundation says, "In our office, we don't call them accidents but road crashes."
