Friday 10 July 2015

Road safety

The recent accident involving the Bollywood actress Hema Malini and the poor family that lost their two year old daughter and the media coverage of the same alongwith the social media has exposed various flaws in our system. For one, the media coverage of the film star is much great as compared to the ordinary citizens. Secondly, stars use social media to play the blame game and shift responsibility. Thirdly, stars get better and expedite medical facilities as compared to the ordinary citizens involved  in the same accident. Fourthly, social media has also helped in public bashing. Fifthly, some people even started indulging in the conspiracy theories.
The fact remains that emergency medical facilities are lacking in India and numerous lives are lost because of the same. People are afraid of getting involved in accident cases because of police harassment inspite of the Supreme Court ruling to protect them. There are number of things that need to be done like;
(1) establishing better emergency care units. Ambulances should be dispatched immediately and first aid as well as emergency treatment should be provided on the spot to improve the chances of survival.
(2) using checks for speed and better implementation of traffic rules to curb the chances of accidents
(3) providing immediate medical attention on the priority of injury and not of social status
(4) implementing traffic rules like use of seat belts, not letting small children ride in front seat, use of car seats for infants
(5) condition of roads including lighting should be improved to improve visibility at night.
(6) public should be encouraged to take accident victims to the hospital and be assurance that they will not be involved in police cases and unnecessary harassment.
While the life that has been lost cannot be returned, and the parents are going to grieve all their life, it is important that steps are taken to ensure that no other family has to end up in a similar situation.

No comments:

Post a Comment