HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
Uncaring passers by left an accident victim to die near Mekhri Circle
Written By kbsyed61 - 23 October, 2011
Bangalore Media Reports Accident Others Everything else Emergency First Aid Victim
What a tragedy. A young man lost his life in our own Namma Bengaluru not because he was drunk or speeding in a Ferrari or Mazda sports car? This young man, Arjun Nair, an MBA aspirant was knocked down by a speeding KSTDC cab on Bellary Road near Mekhri Circle.
Most brazen episode is the uncaring attitude of all the passers by, including the Cab passenger who did not spare some moments to lend this man a first aid or at least a ride to nearby hospital. If nothing else if this man had been taken to the 'Ganesh Nursing Home' which is around the corner at Mekhri Circle could have saved his life. Instead, all have left him to bleed to death.
Our deepest condolences to Arjun Nair's family and friends. Our prayers are with the family for this great loss.
Courtesy - Bangalore Mirror
...On September 15, Nair left a friend’s house in Sadashivanagar and was looking for an auto to take him to his home in Koramangala when he was hit by a speeding KSTDC taxi. Neither the driver Dasharath Singh nor passenger Kiran Kumar, an IBM employee, stopped to help Nair. They drove away without even calling the police or ambulance service.
Police Commissioner B G Jyothi Prakash Mirji confirmed at a press conference that Nair would have survived if either Singh or Kiran had taken him to the hospital.
Instead, Nair struggled for life and bled to death as cars zipped by without stopping. A whole hour later, an ambulance arrived but it was too late. Nair died before reaching the hospital...
Going by the BM's news report, there arises many questions for us here on PRAJA.
- Given the legal procedures, can I or anybody else shift the accident victim nearby hopsital?
- What legal procedures are to be completed by the passers by starting from reporting to the police?
- Should it start by calling police on #100?
- How responsive is police emergency number (#100)?
- Will a private hospital would lend the necessary medical aid to the victim?
- What about the medical expenses that private hospital would charge for?
- Will the good citizenship of passers by who helped teh victim would be appreciated or harassed by authorities?
Certainly we can not expect our city to be rank among civilized ones without us having compassion for the needy on roads in life and death circumstances.
COMMENTS
Where can I find the actual legal language?
kbsyed61 - 24 October, 2011 - 12:24
Ritesh and others,
Can some body points to legal and formal language which points to how accidents victims can be helped?
-Syed
SC Judgement on treatment of accident victims!
kbsyed61 - 24 October, 2011 - 17:17
Courtesy - Chndigarh Traffic Police
"...Supreme Court Judgment: In the case of Pt. Parmanand Katara vs Union of India in Criminal Writ Petition No.270 of 1988, D/-28.8.1989 (AIR 1989 Supreme Court 2039) the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has observed:
“Every injured citizen brought for medical treatment should instantaneously be given medical aid to preserve life and thereafter the procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate in order to avoid negligent death. There is no legal impediment for a medical professional when he is called upon or requested to attend to an injured person needing his medical assistance immediately. The effort to save the person should be the top priority not only of the medical professional but even of the police or any other citizen who happens to be connected with that matter or who happens to notice such an incident or a situation”.
“There are no provisions in the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Motor Vehicles Act, which prevents doctors from promptly attending to serious injured persons and accident cases before arrival of the police and their taking into cognizance of such cases, preparation of FIR and other formalities by Police.”..
Awareness campaign for 'Helping Accident Victims'
kbsyed61 - 24 October, 2011 - 17:37
Namma Prajagalu,
I am putting together a campaign on 'Helping Accident Victims' to bring awareness as to what do in the event of involving in an accident or witness to accident. Awareness to handle situation so that victim gets timely help, and at the same time law of the land is complied with.
Does anybody has any literature or nice writeup, even in the form of FAQs on this topic? If not, no problem, we can compile a list of questions and get some official answers from Police, lawyers, Doctor's and activist who are working on this subject.
Once we are ready with some literature, we can contact HRs of all the companies and persuade them to disseminate the information. If possible conduct some Q & A sessions as part of their CSR activities. I am sure we all have contacts with many industries associations.
Drop in a comment, if you would like to join in and help out.
-Syed
Awareness campaign for 'Helping Accident Victims'
Sudhir T S - 27 October, 2011 - 06:10
Hi,
This is my first post in this forum. My thoughts on this subject.
1. First things first. Police will not rather will never harass for reporting an accident. I have known a couple of incidences where police reached within 10 mins of the call. Once a colleague of mine while returning from airport late in the night happned to pass through an accident site on KH road. He called up 100, and waited for the police personnel to arrive. They arrived in less than 10 mins along with 108 ambulance. My colleague was even complimented by the police for being a dutiful citizen and reporting the incident. My colleague even enquired if the police would require his contact details. They promptly replied that since my colleague was not a witness to the accident, they wouldnt require his statement hence can leave the place.
2. Another point to note that is, when there is an accident it is better to call ambulance and wait for the trained medical personnel to arrive at spot rather than try moving the victim to a hospital. We had a training of sorts in our office where one of the doctors told this. As per him, handling an accident victim is very critical and if not done in a proper way can do more harm than good. A couple of points he mentioned was, do not force feed water to the victim. This could at times block the food pipe. The victim should be lifted in the right way which usually common man like us are not trained to do. So in such cases its better to call ambulance and till the time the ambulance arrive ensure you put the victim in comfort by say offering shade if the victim is under hot sunlight etc. Probably a doctor or trained medical personnel in this forum could come up with more do's and dont's of handling an accident victim.
All in all, like kbsyed61 said, do not think twice for calling 100 when you see an accident victim.
- Given the legal procedures, can I or anybody else shift the accident victim nearby hopsital?
Yes - unlike what is shown in movies, the helper cannot be punished for helping a victim. The most appropriate thing to do is call the ambulance. Most ppl in India are not trained for providing first aid or CPR.
- What legal procedures are to be completed by the passers by starting from reporting to the police?
There are no legal procedures - saving the live of the victim is the only moral obligation that one should have.
- Should it start by calling police on #100?
100 or 108
- How responsive is police emergency number (#100)?
In the past I have called 100 just to test the service - some one always takes the call. 108 is supposedly even better.
- Will a private hospital would lend the necessary medical aid to the victim?
It is an obligation for them to treat the victim. Again no police intervention is required. It is against the law for the hospital to turn away a patient.
- What about the medical expenses that private hospital would charge for?
Hospitals are not supposed to turn away patients (especially accident victims) for want of money. Again this is punishable by law.
- Will the good citizenship of passers by who helped teh victim would be appreciated or harassed by authorities?
Harassed?? again some thing to blame our movies - the police will probably want a statement from the helper.
PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES
Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!