SaveLife Foundation: Creating first responders to emergencies

Driving Safely in Fog

2010-01-07T01:47:00.000-08:00

Ideally, you should avoid driving in fog as reduced visibility increases the risk of accidents. But if you do have to drive in foggy conditions, please follow these basic tips,

1. Never drive on high beam - High beams get reflected back off the fog and actually impair visibility by creating a "white-colored wall" in front of you. Drive on low beam or fog lights. Low beams direct light down onto the road and help other drivers to see you.

2. Reduce speed and keep an eye on your speedometer - Fog creates a visual illusion of slow motion when you may actually be speeding.

3. Listen for traffic you cannot see - Open your window a little, to hear better.

4. Never stop in the middle of the road - If your car stalls or becomes disabled, turn your vehicle's lights off, and take your foot off of the brake pedal. People tend to follow tail lights when driving in fog, which may result in a crash. Switch on your parking lights or blinkers. Move away from the vehicle to the side of the road to avoid injury. If you know that your vehicle is about to break-down take it off the road completely.

5. Follow painted lane markings or the central verge of the road as a guide. Watch out for vehicles that may have stalled.

6. Be patient - Do not overtake vehicles or pass lines of traffic.

7. Always use your defroster and windscreen wipers in foggy conditions to keep the windows clear.

8. Indicate in time - Give turn indicators atleast 10 seconds ahead of the turn. Making sudden moves may not allow other drivers to brake in time due to slick road conditions in fog.

Have a safe winter!

For information on accident and emergency tips, please visit, www.savelifefoundation.org.

What makes India world number 1 in road accidents?

2010-01-07T01:45:00.000-08:00

By Tanveer Ali

A few days back, while surfing the net, I came across a shocking statement: Road fatalities are expected to become the world’s fifth largest killer by 2030, thousands of times more than terrorism or rail/air accidents.

According to the World Health Organizations’ Global Status report on road safety, more people die in road accidents in India than anywhere else in the world. It is shameful, considering the fact that even China has less road accident related deaths even though it is the world’s most populated country. If you say it’s unfair to compare on the basis of population, here’s a little fact for you:

“90% of deaths on the world's roads occur in low and middle-income countries (21.5 and 19.5 per lakh of population, respectively) though they have just 48% of all registered vehicles.”

It is said that at least 13 people die every hour in India every hour due to road accidents. The number of accidents for 1000 vehicles in India is as high as 35 while the figure ranges from 4 to 10 in developed countries. The state governments keep pushing the centre for more roads and highways but do extremely little to make these safer. Let’s examine why we are leading in this field, a dubious distinction indeed.

In my opinion, both the people and the authorities are to blame. We Indians just don’t follow rules. Let’s admit the hard fact-It’s our mindset that needs to change. Foot over bridges just don’t seem to apply to us. I have seen people cross the road even under foot over bridges.

Next in line is the RTA. It’s amazing but one of my friends from Baroda got his license even without appearing for a test. The RTA happens to be one of the most corrupt departments. Here in AP, you can get a car license by appearing only for a bike test and vice versa. This is from my personal experience as I got both my car and bike license by only qualifying the car test. (Not that I don’t know how to drive a bike, but you get the point.) All these lead to unqualified drivers who are adept at flouting rules when it comes to driving. You may argue that one can become better driver with but you can’t learn all the road rules by practicing driving.

The next important point is the condition of the Indian roads. The Americans did not build their highways just like that. It was built after a careful study of the German highways-The Autobahns. The same can be applied to India with suitable modifications for our domestic conditions. Most Indian roads don’t have separate lanes for buses or non motorized vehicles. This is a basic necessity. Roads in US even have a separate emergency lane. We need to have scientific traffic engineering which forms the basis of road safety improvement.

Light punishment for drivers who are caught speeding and drunken driving remains yet another cause for increasing road accidents. The judgement from high profile cases like the infamous BMW road-kill case fails to improve the situation. ‘If you can’t beat them, scare them’ must be the motto for the authorities. This is the only these people can be discouraged. A huge overhaul is needed in terms of technology to catch these offenders. CCTVs in all major traffic junctions can be the first step in this area.

It’s high time we change our attitude and the authorities change theirs. The Delhi commonwealth games 2010 can be a good stepping stone for this. Or else, Delhi must be ready for thousands of foreigners appalled by the condition of Indian roads and traffic.

The writer is a correspondent at YouthKiAwaaz.com

Do we wear helmets and seat belts onlyto avoid challan?

2010-01-07T01:34:00.000-08:00

Do we wear helmets and seat belts only to avoid challans? Indian civic culture is not as strict as the culture in the western countries, and neither do we adopt it as fast as we adopt their social culture. We are imparted with the culture of abiding by the law with subdue force. This is why when somebody behaves like a responsible citizen and tries to be civilized, he/she feels uncomfortable seeing the errant and undisciplined road users.

This was a general observation but it is important for us to know what the youth of our country thinks? YouthKiAwaaz.com's correspondent Moumita Pramanik took the opinion of a few of the members of this youth brigade of our country. Many had explanations for the questions above.

Abir Bose a student from Kolkatta, said, ”Most of us do it to avoid challan, only a handful of women drivers and elderly men wear them for safety”.

Another youngster Aparna Sengupta feels that, “Sometimes we wear it for safety, but most of the time we do it to avoid police harassment”. Akash Goyel says, “As a two wheeler rider I wear it for my safety but most of the riders find lame excuses to avoid it”. As Rajdeep Mukherjee explains this “If avoiding of challan is one of the reasons, then the reason for not wearing it could be style. After enjoying movies like dhoom, the youth might think that it’s possible to impress their 'sweethearts' by showing. But I think the increasing road accidents and the instant deaths some other reasons as to why one must use these things. So for enjoying a long life with speed we need to use helmets and seat belts”.

“Most of the times, people use these safety bands to avoid challan and it’s very unfortunate. Bribing the traffic constable is the easiest way to escape but that does guarantee a long life.” comments Satabdi Mitra.

Rightly, you can bribe a cop, but you cannot bribe life.

Pulloma Mitra brings forward a very important observation about the human psychology, “When a necessity becomes a rule then it seems like a burden. This line is perfectly applicable in relation with using seat belts and helmets at the time of driving. Sometimes people think that they have to do it not for them, but to avoid the unwanted fiasco created by traffic rules and they start to neglect it without thinking about their life which is the main cause of frequent road accidents and deaths. We must realize that all rules are not burden but often a blessing too. So use helmets and seat belts and enjoy your journey”.

These were the opinions of a few youngsters who very strongly feel that safety is priority.

Mentioned below are some facts that we all should know:80 percent of two wheeler riders either suffer head injury or die due to negligence. Road traffic injuries are categorized among 5 leading causes of death. Every year about 12 lakh people die in road accident all over the world. In India about 80,000 people die on roadside 1 person dies every 6 minutes. So now it is high time that we realize that every year thousands of people lose their loved ones. So all of us should consider these laws to be our life savers rather than taking them as burdens.

Road Mishaps: A Growing Epidemic in India

2010-01-06T09:22:00.001-08:00

Menorca Chaturvedi from Youth Ki Awaaz:

"Revelry was at its full swing. The night was young, and their spirits could not be dampened. Racing at 160 mph, when the CITY overtook its last competitor on the bridge, little did they know that their stint in the darkness would draw them alarmingly close to a tragic end.

While two on-spot deaths were declared by the Police, the sole survivor of the accident, a 17 year old school student, was left partially paralyzed and bed-ridden for 6 months."

Read similar News Reports before? Did this remind you of someone you personally knew?

Well, rash driving in India has won us the dubious distinction of the land with the highest recorded deaths in road accidents. With chilling statistics been laid out in the Global Status Report on Road Safety by the ‘World Health Organization’, it has been seen that at least 13 people die every hour in our country, owing to road mishaps, which makes an annual toll about 1,14,000. In fact, India has surpassed China, which had its annual death toll by road accidents estimated to be 89,455.

So, what is it that is leading India to such alarming horrors? Speeding, drunk driving and less use of helmets and seat belts seem to be common factors prevalent in people which is exposing them to avoidable but irreversible consequences.

"Speed is the main reason behind accidents. An increase in average speed is directly related to both the likelihood of a crash occurring and to the severity of crash consequences. A 5% increase in average speed leads to an approximately 10% increase in crashes that cause injuries and a 20% increase in fatal crashes. Zones of 30 kmph can reduce crash risk and injury severity and are recommended in areas where vulnerable road users are particularly at risk," the report said.

While the road fatalities are being feared as an “epidemic”, overtaking the death toll by diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis in the near future, the globe has put itself to the task of effectively reducing traffic and managing its speed. However, India’s ballooning road toll has a different story to tell.

As incomes rise, more vehicles are squeezing on the streets that are designed for much less traffic. Trucks, buses, cars and motorbikes often vie for space on roads crammed with bicycles, rickshaws and even bullock drays and hand-drawn carts.

Hawkers on pavements often force pedestrians to walk on roads. Widespread corruption has made it possible to buy a driver's license without being properly tested. With more than 75 million cars on the roads, recklessness and carelessness of the youth only fuels up the environment apt for road mishaps.

According to the recent statements of the Goa Traffic Police, the highest number of accidents (36%) were on national highways and 70% of the mishaps were due to the driver’s fault. Most of the victims belonged to the productive age of 20 to 35.

Going through all the available statistics and being a witness to the major danger we are exposed to, what I feel, is that a major segment of the youth needs to imbibe the element of Responsibility. Responsibility towards oneself, towards the people whose lives are affected by theirs, and towards the Laws of the country in which they reside. While under-age teenagers should not be driving, safety precautions should be compulsorily taken by all. Being very conversant with the fact that people’s personalities change when drunk, one could make sure that drunk driving is not done by their friends, at least, in their presence, while themselves abstaining from it.

Small steps taken by each of us could help India see an increased rate of responsible drivers, and a decreased rate of road fatalities. After all, Youth is the future of our country.

New Year's Eve - Accident & Emergency Tips!

2008-12-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

It's new year's eve! Some of us will be bringing in the new-year partying away from home at a club, farm-house or a friend's place. Here are a few tips to ensure that you and your loved ones arrive home safely after the party.

1. The most obvious, DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE. Take your driver or hire a cab.

2. Do not speed while driving. If you have a driver, brief him not to driver fast even if the roads are empty. A simple puncture at high speed may cause the car to over-turn.

3. Stop at the traffic junction even if there's a green light, amber blinkers or no lights. Make sure there are no speeding vehicles approaching the junction. If there are any, wait for them to pass.

4. Car drivers must wear a seat-belt, and bikers a helmet - even if you're going half a kilometer away from home. Most accident fatalities occur due to head and neck injuries, and a seat-belt/helmet provides a level of protection from these.

5. If you are involved in a high-speed crash and are injured but conscious, do not move with a jerk or let anyone else more you forcibly. Remain calm, move out of the vehicle slowly and try to evaluate your injuries. Here are some steps to help yourself and others:

a. CALL FOR HELP.

Some numbers you can call for immediate help in different cities.

Ahemadabad - 108/100
Bangalore - 103/1062/100
Chennai - 100/1066
Delhi - 100/102/1099
Gurgaon - 100/2320100/4585666
Hyderabad - 108/100/1066
Jaipur - 108
Kolkata - 100/22485277
Mumbai - 100/102/1298
Noida - 100/2444444

If your city is not mentioned here, find out the Accident-care or Police helpline number and feed them in your phone as speed-dial before you leave your house tonight.

b. If you are bleeding heavily, take off your shirt, chunni or pagri and use it to apply pressure on the wound, if possible by tying a knot. Use someone's help if you're unable to do so. THIS MUST BE DONE IF THE BLEEDING IS FROM STOMACH OR THIGH.

c. If your back hurts, move to side of the road and lie still on your back. Wait for help to arrive. If someone is moving you, try and make sure your spine is as straight as can be.

d. If you are feeling dizzy or fear that you will get unconscious, move to the road-side and lie on your left side with your left arm under your head. This will ensure that your tongue or blood in the mouth does not block your airway while you are unconscious.

e. If a foreign object has entered your body, do not take it out or let anyone else take it out. Remain calm, and try to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

Lastly, if you witness an accident, please don't drive away. At the very least, call for help. You can also help the victim by saying soothing words such as "You will be fine", "It's not a major injury", "Help is on the way", etc. This will help prevent the victim going into shock, and calm him/her down.

Have a safe, joyous and successful 2009!

SLF Workshop on 8th November 2008

2008-11-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Videos from SLF's Life Savers workshop held on 8th November 2008 at the AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi.

Disclaimer: The videos demonstrate a session where participants are being tested by qualified medical professionals. The steps followed by participants may or may not be correct.

Group 1

Group 2

SLF on NDTV

2008-11-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

SaveLife Foundation (SLF) was covered by NDTV Metro Nation in primetime news on 19th October 2008. Here's the news item, courtesy: NDTV.

2008-10-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

Videos from SLF's training workshop - Life Savers - at AIIMS Trauma Center Delhi on 19th October 2008.

Disclaimer: The videos demonstrate a session where participants are being tested by qualified medical professionals. The steps followed by participants may or may not be correct.

India is in the midst of a silent epidemic but does anyone care?

2008-10-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Last evening, I left my office in Gurgaon a little late than usual for my home in Noida. As I was approaching the highway toll booth, driving in the right-most lane, I noticed a cyclist in the middle lane. I slowed down a bit and honked lightly to let him know that I was about to pass. Just as I was going to cross him, he suddenly swerved into my lane with his right hand jutting out. He never looked behind to check the traffic. I braked and nearly avoided being hit by a mini-truck behind me. I honked in protest but got a stare in return that soon changed into a grin mocking me. I then saw him lifting his bicycle through the central verge, mounting it again and riding across 4 lanes almost perpendicular to the traffic, inviting honks and abuses from other drivers. He clearly didn’t care for his own, or others’ safety. Neither did the guards posted on the highway responsible for warding off cyclists to the service lane. I moved on and reminded myself of being even more careful than I usually am. By the time I reached home, I had encountered trucks with blinding headlights driving at a break-neck speed, motor-cyclists without helmets swerving across lanes (including the bus lane!), call center cabs driving at almost 100 Kmph all over the road, the infamous Blue-line buses honking the crap out of auto-rickshaw drivers, and between all this, pedestrians trying to cross the road even with a foot-over-bridge within comfortable distance. Throughout the journey I didn’t spot even a single traffic cop. But then do they really do much even during the day when they are around? Fortunately I didn’t witness any accidents which are all so common in this part of the world. This wasn’t the first time I had had a frustrating drive from Gurgaon to Noida or vice versa. But maybe for the first time I realized that nobody really cares about what goes on on our roads – the drivers, the pedestrians, the cops and the law makers put together.

Consider this,

According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, last year over 130,000 people died in road accidents in the country, by far the most in the world.
Simple math converts that figure to an average of 15 road accident deaths every hour.
To put that in perspective, the figure is significantly higher than the death toll in 15 years of Kashmir insurgency (both civilian and military) and the Kargil war, put together!
Most fatalities have been in the age group of 15 – 50. The socio-economic impact can be determined just by understanding how a death or injury to a productive family member impacts the whole family.

10 years ago a WHO report had stated that India will see an annual escalation of over 3% in road accident deaths till 2040 unless emergency measures are taken. We have already surpassed the prediction with over 15% escalation year on year for the past 3 years, but unlike reservations or T&D losses, making our roads safer doesn’t seem to be a top priority for any political formation in India, despite the epidemic proportions of the problem. As a newspaper recently put it, “India has always suffered from appalling misallocations of investment. This is just another glaring example”. Across India, the concept of emergency services is still non-existent and in metros still very nascent. Victims have to wait for many minutes and sometimes even hours to get any kind of trained help. Ambulances serve merely as patient transportation vehicles and are not equipped to provide critical pre-hospital care. Police jeeps are not equipped with stretchers or spine boards, increasing the probability of severe spinal and head injuries, and policemen have no idea of first aid. Across Europe and United States, and many countries in Asia, policemen are required to have first aid skills including CPR, but not for the force that polices the second largest population on this planet. Rampant corruption in RTOs ensures that anyone can get a driving license without a test, for a ‘fee’. There are no or limited facilities for pedestrians to cross roads and they end up taking grave chances to get to the other side. The state of our roads is well known. A few weeks back in Delhi a motor-cyclist with his daughter riding pillion couldn’t negotiate a rough patch and they both fell from the bike only to be run over by a truck. And there is no one to control the truck menace on our highways or surface streets. They come into the city, drive like maniacs and get away without being prosecuted. Many do stop at check posts to ‘pay their respect’ to the cops.

But the government alone cannot be blamed when people themselves don’t care for their safety.

Cyclists think that being the smallest/slowest members on the road they will never get the blame for an accident.
Motor-cyclists perhaps believe they will never get into an accident while they make their death-defying moves with or without a helmet (…and women pillion riders refuse to wear helmets perhaps because they are gifted with stronger skulls than their male counterparts?!?). In any case, most bikers wear helmets not for their safety but to avoid getting fined and therefore many-a-times go for make-shift helmets or ones that are of very poor quality.
The bus drivers and owners strive to do more rounds and pack their buses even if it means running over a few people.
And cab drivers are simply in a rush as if always on nature’s call. But more importantly, it’s the passengers in these cabs that I’m most shocked about. A friend recently had his car nicked by a call-center cab and the employees sitting inside the cab flashed gang signs and laughed at him while the cabbie sped away. These occupants certainly didn’t care about the number of people or cars the driver took out while he rushed them to their office. I have noticed similar attitude in the Gurgaon toll lanes as well, where a cabbie would break a lane (whenever there are any), go right ahead and shove his cab back in the lane while employees look the other away. I employ the services of such cabs for my company too and know that it doesn’t take much to ask the driver to slow down or complain to the company if he doesn’t. Well this note is not enough to talk about this phenomena and I will write another one just dedicated to this aspect.
Finally, the private car drivers. I have always felt that many drivers on our roads get a sense of achievement if they takeover another vehicle or swerve across lanes as they speed ahead. It seems they haven’t succeeded anywhere else in life and want to make up for the loss while they are on the road. Or maybe their cars don’t have breaks. But the moot point is that very few care for any other person on the road.

When all these characteristics come together we get a nasty cocktail of death and destruction that makes India World No. 1 in road accident deaths. China is a distant No. 2 with under-100,000 road fatalities.

But does anyone care?

Well there are pockets where things are looking up.

Satyam Computers has started a well-equipped ambulance service in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, and soon in Delhi.
In Delhi again, Police Control Room (PCR) vans are reaching accident sites within minutes and evacuating victims (there’s of course much to be desired in quality of evacuation).
The Lifeline Foundation is providing search and rescue service on Gujarat’s highways.
On 27th February 2007, the Supreme Court passed a ruling stating that bystanders helping victims of accidents and violence cannot be questioned by hospitals or the Police; their job ends the moment they leave the victim at the hospital or nursing home. It is the hospital’s responsibility to call the Police, stabilize the victim, and shift him/her to a center of higher care.

All are steps in the right direction, but for a country as big as ours, we need reforms at the policy level. We need initiatives that address the present as well as the future.

Standards need to be set for ambulances, road quality, issuance of driving licenses and Police training across the country, and people flouting them need be put behind bars for a long time.
The need for safe driving must be emphasized at the school level itself and all students must be put through sessions of life saving skills.
A country-wide campaign needs to be launched to re-educate the general public in traffic rules.
A single-number on the lines of US’ 911 needs to be set-up (perhaps as a public-private partnership for efficient management) across the country to ensure a quick and well coordinated response to accidents.
In cities where traffic is an issue, choppers need to be pressed into service to evacuate critical victims. The Army and Air Force can surely contribute here as they normally do during natural disasters, until our cities can afford to create this service. Though looking at the usage of choppers by our politicians during elections, I’m sure something can be done in that direction.
If that is difficult, medics on bikes need to be pressed into service for rushing through traffic and attending to victims before an ambulance or police car arrives. This will ensure that the victim gets stabilized before being shifted to a hospital.
Laws need to be strengthened to ensure fair investigations of accidents so that the driver of the bigger vehicle in an accident doesn’t go behind bars just based on assumptions.
There is a desperate need for pedestrian facilities in our cities and the government needs to attend to this deficiency immediately.
And lastly, public transport needs to be expanded and modernized so that people avoid using their own vehicles at least on weekdays.

This is not anything out of the box. We all know that these are the right steps forward. What is missing is a collective effort to make our roads safer and pull India down from the No. 1 slot in this gloomy global list of deaths. Unless we care enough, and care NOW, this epidemic is never going to come under control.

- Piyush Tewari, Founder, SaveLife Foundation