Key Points
Pal, who had crashed into another bike on the road, struggled to survive in hospital for the next three days and finally breathed his last Tuesday.His mobile phone, wallet and GoPro camera were reportedly stolen while he was lying on the road...
The incident exposes yet again, if not the apathy, at least the definite lack of legal awareness among the general public about the good samaritan law instituted in 2016 a fear that a phone call to the police or ambulance, or taking an injured to the hospital will result in them being harassed, heckled or hassled at the police station, hospital and courts...
According to the website of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a good samaritan is a person who in good faith, without expectation of payment or reward, and without any duty of care or special relationship, voluntarily comes forward to administer immediate assistance or emergency care to a person injured in an accident, or crash, or emergency medical condition, or emergency situation...
The law protects such good samaritans from harassment over the actions being taken by them to save the lives of road accident or medical emergency victims...
However, a study by SaveLIFE Foundation conducted across 11 Indian cities in 2018 found that, in spite of the guidelines for protection of good samaritans, only 29 percent respondents (among a total of 3,667 people) were willing to escort an injured to hospital, a meagre 28 percent were willing to call an ambulance and only 12 percent were willing to call the police..
