Death on the Indian Roads

An accident Victim lying unattended on road for many hours and ultimately bleeding to death has become a common sight in the Indian roads. This happens because of the criminal apathy with which traffic accidents are handled in the country by the authorities concerned. Such sheer callousness more often results in avoidable tragic death leading to many families becoming helpless overnight. Such mishandling of the accident cases may snatch away the sole bread-winners of the family.

It has been reported many a time that more number of Indians die road accidents in India every year than in natural calamities. Perhaps, the primary reason for this is that the prevailing laws are not victims-friendly. Nor do they encourage the good Samaritans who are keen to come to the timely rescue of the victims bleeding to death. The experts have time and again pointed out that the first one hour (known as Golden Hour) following the accident is very crucial for the accident victims. In case an accident victim is brought to the nearest hospital during this period the chances of the survival are very significant. But, more often than not this is not the case since most of the victims are not singularly fortunate to receive medical care within this valuable time.

It is also seen that the policemen waste precious time over simple technical matters like jurisdiction etc. Their animosities towards the good Samaritans are pronounced as well. Dead-bodies are also a rich and safe source for many to take away the valuables. For this unlawful act, who else is better than a dead-body?

The extant laws do not encourage those who are willing to extend timely help to the victims. The medical fraternity who choose to provide emergency medical care to the trauma victims without MLCs is constrained to face several legal problems. As far as the medical facilities available in the civil hospitals is concerned, the said the better.

In short, the Indians will continue to bleed to death on the pathetic Indian roads in the callous hands of the careless government machinery and policy-makers who are feigning sleep and ignorance about this burning issue.

In order to overcome this problem, there must be an all-India helpline exclusively dedicated for the rescue operations of the accident victims. We have several Help lines dedicated for issues ranging from Teen-age problems to AIDS, but not one for handling such human tragedies. This dedicated help-line can be connected to the civic authorities who are supposed to handle the accident cases. They must also be sensitized about the need to help the victims and the Trauma Units. Even the support of the corporates may be enlisted. The sooner the better it is.