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'Good Samaritans' are still being arrested for helping accident victims in India

59% of people who helped accident victims said they were later detained by police

Adam Withnall
Delhi
Tuesday 27 November 2018 14:05 GMT
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India has one of the highest numbers of road accident deaths per year in the world
India has one of the highest numbers of road accident deaths per year in the world

People who stop to help at the scene of road traffic accidents in India are still being harassed by the police, a survey has found, some two years after a law was introduced that was supposed to guarantee their protection.

India’s roads are notoriously unsafe, with almost 150,000 people dying in traffic accidents in the country in 2017 alone, the equivalent of three every 10 minutes.

Yet victims are often denied essential first aid because of a reluctance among bystanders to offer them assistance, fuelled by a widespread fear of police harassment and legal hassle if they become caught up in any accident report.

In 2016, the Supreme Court attempted to enforce a change of culture with the so-called Good Samaritan law. It stipulates that bystanders who help accident victims should not only be exempt from detention or police harassment, but that they should be financially rewarded for their actions.

But a new survey conducted by the SaveLIFE Foundation, an NGO which has campaigned to improve rates of first aid offered to victims, found that 84 per cent of Indians are unaware of their rights under the 2016 law.

Researchers also spoke to a sample of more than 230 Good Samaritans themselves – people who had tried to help an accident victim in the last 18 months, either by providing first aid at the scene, calling the police or even accompanying a stranger to hospital.

Of these, 59 per cent said they had been detained by police and had their details taken – a clear violation of regulations. Another 22 per cent said they were detained by officials at the hospital where they took the victim.

Piyush Tewari, the founder and chief executive of the SaveLIFE Foundation said: “It is quite evident from the study that even two years after the institution of the Good Samaritan law citizens are unaware of their new rights when they help an injured person on the road. Consequently, people are still hesitant to help.”

More than 2,800 members of the public were spoken to across 11 major Indian cities for the study, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Researchers focussed on urban and semi-urban areas, which had the highest rates of traffic accidents.

The percentage of people saying they would be willing to help an accident victim has risen to 88 per cent compared to just 26 per cent when the NGO carried out its last survey in 2013.

However, when asked what specific action they would be willing to take, only 29 per cent said they would take the victim to hospital. Just over one in four would even be willing to call an ambulance – and a mere 12 per cent would be prepared to phone the police.

Of those who said they would be reluctant to help, two in three attributed it to fears of either police harassment or legal hassle.

Mr Tewari, a former investment banker, founded the SaveLIFE Foundation after the 2007 death of his 17-year-old cousin. He has previously described his motivation for setting up the NGO, telling National Geographic in 2016 that “people are dumbfounded” when they learn about the scale of India’s problem with road accidents.

“After being hit by a car, [my cousin] was able to drag himself to the side of the road, but despite his pleas to hundreds who may have passed him, no one came forward to help. He literally bled to death,” Mr Tewari said. “If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.”

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