<div>Imagine a jumbo jet with 380 passengers crashing every day in India, 365 days in a year. What kind of a government response or public outcry would that invite? How quickly will the case get investigated, compensation disbursed, engineering or pilot issues identified and action taken by courts? Alacritous, comprehensive and with significant expertise. More than 380 people in India are dying every day in crashes, not in plane crashes but road crashes. And despite such a monumental loss of life on our roads — close to 140,000 each year — there has been very little action to curb the epidemic. <br /><br />To understand what Jnanesh Rathod Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Idris have been through in this case, one must first understand the anatomy of road crashes in India. The reasons for high number of road crash deaths in India can be classified broadly under four categories. <br /><br />The first is behaviour of road users including rash and negligent driving, over-speeding, drunk-driving, driving under fatigue, etc. But why is the behaviour of road users in India the way it is? It is so because the two things that control the quality of drivers coming on our roads — the driver’s licensing system and the driver’s education system — are completely fractured. Driving licenses can be home-delivered in most states for a small bribe, the tests if taken are a joke, and driver’s training is not mandatory under the existing law. Even if someone did want to get trained properly, good driving schools are far and few. <br /><br />The second reason is pertaining to enforcement of traffic laws, which remains weak and largely corrupt. The issues here range from weak penalty structures to low capacity for enforcement to minimal use of technology to missing crash investigation protocols. <br /><br />Kuldeep’s case also highlights the third element contributing to growing number of road crash deaths in India — poor engineering and design of our roads as well as vehicles. Globally, countries are moving towards a “safe systems approach” in design, a philosophy that enables engineers to build roads and vehicles which account for human error<br />and forgive them for some of them. Roads are built with softer medians and turns and vehicles with safety features like ABS (antilock braking systems) and airbags even in their base models. India, however, remains far behind with no such standards. <br /><br />Finally, as seen in Jnanesh’s case, lack of rapid trauma care takes away potentially salvageable lives. If an ambulance had arrived within minutes, the victim may have been saved. But that never happened and Jnanesh had to get involved to try to save the victim’s life. And he is now paying a heavy price for that through our legal system.<br /><br />Good Samaritans like him are often subjected to prolonged legal hassles, severe inconvenience and intimidation at the hands of the legal system. There are no provisions in the law or in the court procedures to protect and celebrate people like him. Accidents happen for a number of reasons as cited above but it is how quickly an injured person gets care is what often determines the chances of survival. <br /><br />In State TR.P.S.Lodhi Colony New Delhi vs Sanjeev Nanda (2012) 8 SCC 450, it was held by the Supreme Court that “Many a times, bystanders keep away from the scene, perhaps not to get themselves involved in any legal or court proceedings. Good Samaritans who come forward to help must be treated with respect and be assured that they will have to face no hassle and will be properly rewarded. We, therefore, direct the Union of India and State Governments to frame proper rules and regulations and conduct awareness programmes so that the situation like this could, to a large extent, be properly attended to and, in that process, human lives could be saved.” No such rules or regulations have been framed by the government till date. <br /><br />To augment what exists, Good Samaritans like Jnanesh, Kuldeep and Idris must be encouraged and guaranteed protection from legal hassles through a Good Samaritan Law with a robust enforcement mechanism. Courts must view these persons as preservers of life and give them special treatment so that more people can come forward to help road crash victims. It is only then that we can expect to save thousands of innocent lives being lost on our roads every year.<br /><em><br />The writer is the Founder and President of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to improving road safety and emergency medical care across India</em><br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 22-09-2014)</div>
