Many times, we have heard about accident victims lying injured on the road and nobody comes forward for help or to take them to hospital. An obvious reason for the same is that people avoid or are afraid of police and legal procedures that they will have to encounter if they take any unknown injured person to the hospital. But from now onwards, the person who will take the injured to hospital will not face any legal or procedural problems; in fact, he/she will be duly rewarded for the humanitarian act.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made guidelines, based on which a legal framework will be prepared and this can be clearly called a major step in the direction of reducing the number of deaths in accidents.
A bench which comprises V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra stated, “We approve the guidelines. The central government shall now give wide publicity to the guidelines through the print and electronic media so that people who help others in the time of distress are not victimised by any authority.”
As per the guidelines issued in a PIL which was filed by Save Life Foundation, an NGO, a person who takes the accident victim to the hospital won’t be asked any question and he may leave instantly. In the same way, police won’t be allowed to compel the person, who gave information about the accident, to disclose his personal details. The concerned person may or may not share his personal details for the purpose of filling medical or legal forms. The eye-witness of the accident will be examined just once, either during the police investigation or in the court.
This is what Former Delhi High Court judge VS Agarwal stated, “Annual social loss due to these accidents is 3 per cent of GDP. Timely help can save about 50 per cent of the lives. If proper medical care is provided to victims within an hour after the accident, the chances of victims’ survival will be the highest.”
