Accident kills the most, but not instantly

This is off-topic, but NW is committed towards the society and this is about that!

“Hey see, there’s a gathering there, let’s check out”, yells my wife springing her neck out of the car – the most usual reaction on an Indian road I guess. I did not pay much attention, because more often than not it’s a case of two folks fighting over their bruised expensive Sedans, never daring touching each other but turning the world upside down with their vocal chords. I couldnot help but stop there but, on spotting something unusual – there were two bodies, shredded at a number of places, lying in a pool of blood on the road. The impression was to look at the time by my watch. I was confused, mainly because it was 1’o clock at night.

The sheer number of people surrounding the spot actually gave me the confidence to stop my car and have a look. The first intention was to help, but at this time of the day? On top of that, this is Delhi, and I’m with my wife. Nonetheless, I pushed my way in front of the crowd to the exact spot of accident and I was right – it was actually body of a young girl and what seemed to be the SUV’s driver. It looked like someone rammed into the car right from the side of the driver. Both were still alive, but I, being just another common man and one afraid of polices’ harassment, was at the midst of a huge mind battle. If it wasn’t for this other guy present there, I would’ve taken even more time to come out of the shell. Immediately I called an emergency number I had of ambulance service of a popular hospital, and they arrived in about 10 minutes. I was cursing myself the whole time for not being able to do anything other than stopping the people from acting unnecessary Gurus. I did not know what to do exactly; I was scared I might hurt them if I tried to hold them or something.

Does the incident above sounds familiar to you? Did you ever find yourself in similar situations? We all might have at some point or other, and if you have not till now that doesnot mean you will not in future. So if there is one thing I would want to change around me today, especially in a big bad busy city – is the attitude of people towards accident victims lying unattended on the roads! And the authority and people themselves will help achieving this.

We keep on hearing that the numbers of rapes are rising, murders have increased but right after these mentions come mention of the biggest of them all – road accidents! And believe me, these road accidents are the easiest and within our control to prevent. Well, not exactly the accidents, but deaths happening from these accidents. Research says that most of the road accident victims succumb to death because of not receiving timely attention. Police try hard to stop these, but they can’t be everywhere at all the time. So what’s the solution? Let’s talk about a few of them here which I believe will do a world of good to scare off this monster.

Community help

The biggest and best of all is to train the community, the so called mango people. There is nothing better than a scenario where every other person witnessing an accident feels confident in dealing with the situation. For this to happen, I suggest Govt. and NGOs to put up hoardings and wall posters especially on highways and near popular public places. You’ve seen those posters about TB or polio with instructions? Ya, you got it! Not only that, pamphlets can be placed for free in popular hangout joints like CCD, McDonald’s etc. Don’t expect all to learn these tips by heart, but when you see the same thing all over the place – you tend to acquire the knowledge automatically. This, coupled with free workshops during various fairs and other public gathering and you are about to meet a really educated lot.

Volunteers

Govt. and NGOs can join hands in training a lot of volunteers and deploy them in critical places like on highway bridges, and interstate highways etc. These volunteers will go a long way in monitoring unforeseen events and also will have some authority in taking matters into their aware hands. The SaveLife foundation is an NGO that works towards achieving this. Their SaveLife Emergency Response Network (SERN) works on training policemen and volunteers in emergency medical procedures to help in needy in the times of need.

Highway police

Many states now have highway police but they are mainly to prevent crime. They are not well-equipped with medical facilities for emergency. I suggest keeping a number of ambulances within reaching distance of every police van. It would also be great for the policemen to equip themselves with some training.

Unnecessary police harassments and paperworks

The biggest hesitation common people have about helping an unknown person is because of unnecessary harassments and questioning from police – most of which are not even related to the incident. People should feel secured helping others, and for that the police will have to be empathic enough.

But…,

Do you know why I stopped there in the middle of the night? It’s the number of folks around the victim that actually gave me the confidence. And trust me; I was more concerned about a trap than questions from police! You sure must have heard news on TV, saw movies where things ultimately turned out to be fake and traps of goons. So last but not least – always be careful even when helping others.

Be a smart citizen, and you’ll find life can be a lot smoother than it seemed around you J

This article is an entry to an Indiblogger contest. Go to http://facebook.com/sftimetochange to know how you can change what you don’t like.