Chennai ranked lowest when it comes to awareness on Good Samaritan Law

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:

If you met with an accident in Chennai, people will think twice of rushing you to hospital as the city is ranked lowest when it comes to the awareness of Good Samaritan Law enforced on March 30, 2016 after a Supreme Court intervention. 

As per the study conducted by SaveLIFE Foundation, Chennai fares poor when it comes to awareness of Good Samaritan Law. 

The study says only seven per cent in Chennai are aware about the law. The study ponts out that while the behavior of bystanders to facilitate care for crash victims increased in many cities after the passage of law, in Chennai the response was meager 5 per cent.

The study also stated that none of the police officials surveyed in Chennai were trained on GSL guidelines. The study also stated quoting 89.6 respondents that police police official did not call the ambulance immediately to help the road crash victim.

In 2012, SaveLIFE Foundation filed a Writ petition in Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India in public interest for the development of supportive legal framework for the protection of Good Samaritans, i.e., bystanders who render help to the injured persons or a person in distress on the road. 

The objective of the petition was to create an enabling legal framework for the comprehensive protection of Good Samaritans from ensuing legal and procedural hassles as it will help save victims of road accidents who die in the first 15 minutes due to serious cardiovascular or neurological injuries and can be saved by providing basic life support during the “Golden Hour.”

The study has been conducted in 11 cities across the country with a total sample size of 3667 respondents including Good Samaritans (who have helped road crash victims post 2016 Judgment), Police Officials, Hospital Administration, Medical Practitioners and Trial Court Lawyers.

Overall, the only 16 per cent people surveyed across the country were aware about the Good Samaritan Law in India. The awareness has been low among the other southern metros as well with Bengaluru having eight per cent awareness and Hyderabad 11 per cent. On the contrary, Indore had highest recall of the law followed by Jaipur, Mumbai and Delhi. 

Factfile:

--- 74% bystanders are unlikely to assist a victim of serious injury irrespective of whether they are alone at the spot or in the presence of others.

---  88% of the bystanders who were unlikely to help a victim hesitated to do so as they believed that Good Samaritans

were subjected to legal hassles and mistreatment by Police.

---- 77% of those who were unwilling to help a victim felt that hospitals unnecessarily detained Good Samaritans and often

demanded money from them for treatment of victims.

---- 37% bystanders were unaware of where to take the victim for emergency trauma care.

---- 88% of those surveyed expressed the desire for a Law that could create a supportive environment to assist injured

victims