Neemuch (Madhya Pradesh): It has been a year since the state government rolled out the Good Samaritan scheme, a scheme aimed at bringing down the fatalities in road accidents by rewarding Good Samaritans who rush the victims to a hospital within the golden hours.
But if we go through the figures revealed by the district traffic department, it tells a different story. As per the data available from the department, Neemuch district is still searching for its first "Good Samaritan" even after the district lost 152 lives in 332 road accidents witnessed between 2021 and 2022 (till August 31, 2022).
Many experts attribute the lack of awareness among the masses about the scheme who still hesitate to help accident victims here in the district as a prominent reason that the district is yet to draw the benefit of the scheme.
The scheme entitles any person, who helps save a life by taking a road crash victim to the hospital, to a reward of Rs 5,000 per accident.
The new law is that the ìGood Samaritanî is free to not disclose his name to the hospital or law enforcement authorities; they can also choose not to take part in any legal process involving the accident.
Neemuch district is one of the most accident-prone districts with as many 448 persons losing their lives in the last five years (between 2017 and 2021). The traffic department here has left no stone unturned to encourage people to help accident victims. It has erected hoardings at 40 different places to encourage people.
When the matter was discussed with the common people, they revealed that they know about the scheme, but along with this there is also a fear in their mind that helping others could bring legal complications. As a result of this, people prefer to keep a safe distance from such matters.
One of Neemuch's famous orthopaedic surgeons Dr Yashwant Patidar told that if the patient gets timely treatment in case of an accident, then about 30 per cent of fatalities can be prevented as timely treatment could help to prevent excessive blood loss and that helps doctors to save the patients.
When contacted Neemuch district's traffic police station in-charge, Mohan Bharrawat, told that the main objective of this scheme is that common people take seriously injured persons to the hospital on time following a road accident, so that doctors could save them. However, no such case has come to the fore during the last one year.
We are constantly trying to make the general public aware about this and also appeal to the general public that by showing sensitivity and humanity in such matters by fulfilling the duty of a good citizen, they can become an ally of the police administration. For this, we have also made arrangements for wide publicity in the entire district.
Overall, if the administration has to succeed in this matter, then the general public will have to be made more aware as well as the fear of police action will also have to be removed from their mind, only then they will be able to get a Good Samaritan.
Neemuch Road Accidents between 2017 and 2021
Year Accidents Deaths
2017 461 94
2018 404 97
2019 385 80
2020 304 81
2021 368 96
