Survey in India reveals that 3 out of 4 bystanders would not help an injured road crash victim
If you are injured in a road crash in India, don’t expect a bystander to help – that’s the frightening reality a new survey has revealed.
SaveLIFE Foundation, a grantee of GRSP’s Road Safety Grants Programme funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, has just released the findings of a first-ever, seven city survey into the major impediments to bystanders lending assistance to victims of road crash in India. The report makes for a worrying read and further reinforces the desperate need for a ‘Good Samaritan Law’ in India – the major focus of SaveLIFE Foundations’s grant-funded work.
Beyond revealing that 74% of bystanders are unlikely to help an injured victim of road crash, the survey delved into the reasons for such inaction. Of those surveyed:
- 88% believe that good samaritans are subjected to legal hassles and mistreatment by police
- 77% feel that hospitals unnecessarily detain good samaritans and often demand money for treatment
- 88% expressed the desire for a law that would create a supportive environment for them to assist injured victims
With such ingrained beliefs, one can start to understand the scope of the problem.
At the launching of the report, Piyush Tewari, SaveLIFE Foundation founder said, “Public inaction is often blamed on apathy, but in several mass-casualty incidents such as building collapses and train crashes, it is the public that is often the first to respond to victims – why then do they hesitate when it comes to victims of road crashes and violence? This study documents and answers that.”.
Read the Full Report.
Read the Broad Findings.
