Now, you can help road victims without fear


From now on, you need not hesitate to help an accident victim fearing legal, procedural hassles and harassment in hospital, police station or courts. Now, you will also be rewarded or compensated for the life-saving initiative.

A supportive legal framework for Good Samaritans, which can help reduce the number of accidental deaths in the country drastically, finally came into being with the putting its stamp of approval on the guidelines framed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

"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," said a bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra.

According to the guidelines issued in a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO Save Life Foundation, a bystander or an eyewitness to an accident who takes the injured to the hospital may leave immediately after furnishing address and no question will be asked to him.

Similarly, the police can't force the person informing about the accident to reveal his name and personal details.

It will be his or her choice to share name and contact details in medico- legal case forms, which the police fill when an accident victim is brought to the hospital for treatment. The accident eyewitnesses will be examined only once during police investigation investigation or trial in court. The witness will also be given a chance to depose in the court through video-conferencing. Action will be taken against government officials who force a bystander to reveal name and personal details. If the witness volunteers to go before the court to depose in the case, the trial judge shall complete his examination in one sitting and shall not make him wait endlessly in the court.

The guidelines, have also asked the state governments to work out a plan to reward or compensate good samaritans to encourage citizens to come forward and help road accident victims. After framing the guidelines, the ministry had said it wanted its guidelines to be incorporated in a judicial order so that all are bound by it.

A lethal blend of poor law enforcement and lack of emergency medical care makes India the world's road death capital. Nearly 150,000 people get killed every year and more than three times as many are injured in road accidents, says a recent World Health Organisation report.

"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," said former Delhi High Court judge VS Agarwal in a report compiled by a Supreme Court-appointed panel he headed on framing guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans.

Source: IT

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