Commuter as good samaritan

[rakesh ram]

Something that most of you commuters will already be doing in Bangalore but wanted to encourage those who are not doing it. When we commute by cycle we have many advantages to easily be a good Samaritan in situations where we witness an accident. Unlike someone who is driving a car, riding a motorbike we can easily park our cycle anywhere(even on a median) and help out an accident victim. And also unlike other motorists we don't have to worry too much about traffic getting worse after 20 minutes, our commute time won't change much even if we spend a bit of time to help a citizen in need. Things that we can do

1) Check immediately with the onlookers on whether ambulance have been called. If not immediately call 108(make sure you have clear address details of accident location before you call).
2) Help the victim in anyway possible. Help him contact family if he is concious.
3) Stay with the victim till ambulance comes. Normally you give your phone number when you call 108, so they might call back and you may have to guide them to proper location.

[Ali Poonawala]

Thanks Rakesh...

This is a great perspective, of using our advantage of being cyclist, to further help the society and fellow citizens.

One suggestion though, securely lock your cycle and make sure your belongings are safe too. .opportunists may turn your sweet gesture into a bitter experience.

I would like to hear positive and negative feedback, from cyclist point of you, if anyone can share please !

Ali Poonawala
Bangalore

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[Pradeep Naidu]

This is a very good topic. Thanks Rakesh for bringing this up.. 

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Pradeep Naidu S

[vivek]

Nicely put Rakesh. What you have mentioned makes sense. I faced couple of instances like that and stopped to help. Luckily both the cases were minor ones which did not require any help from my side.

Adding to the above suggestions is another thing I faced. The advantage we cyclists have can come in handy to make way for AMBULANCE as well. Most of the time the people blocking the ambulance, don't know how to make way for it. As we will have a clear view we can block/divert vehicles and suggest them to make way for the ambulance. People think that only way to make way for ambulance is drive off ahead, which does not help one bit.

Regards,

Vivek

[rakesh ram]

True Vivek. I have felt that about Ambulance situation also. But that requires some good skill at commanding attention and quick judgement.

-Rakesh

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

Happens all the time. If I am in a position to help, I definitely do so. In 2012 I and Opendro witnessed a major accident and stayed around till ambulance came enroute to Nandi. Open even went with the police to help identify the vehicle from the CCTV at the toll plaza.

Few days back a girl in front of me skidded badly hit an auto and fell, thankfully minor scratches. No help was needed this time. The auto guy defended himself, the girl was shaken. The culprit was a sand bank which the girl didn't /couldn't see since she was tailing too close.

2 years back enroute to start of the 600 in June, I witnessed a bad accident, somebody had got hold of a jeep , I went to the hospital. Again no help was needed from me, but I was around just in case. Went with the group that was helping this guy. Again he was drunk and just trying some stunts. He was in bad shape though.

I think if we are in a position to help, we should, regardless of if we are in a car or a bike. If its a minor accident and two guys are fighting it out, I don't bother but if somebody is hurt and I am in a position to help, I try to. 

Regards

Chiddu

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[rakesh ram]

Good Chiddu. Your narrative makes me feel happy. But this is not about few people being very proactive. As a larger society(considering the city population) we don't have a good record with helping accident victims. It might be better than Delhi(which i hear is the worst) but there is lot of scope for improvement. We always need to focus on what can be improved. So we need to talk about people who died because no one helped. At times we need to focus on negativity to improve the situation. So was thinking about what our little cycling community can do to help and which would off course motivate the larger society also.

-Rakesh

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[santosh kumar]

Not just accidents, we can help people who are trying to push their cars which is refusing to start, or a fruit seller trying to push a fully loaded push cart on a short ramp (happened a couple of times in the magic box near the kr puram railway station).

I guess, these things happen more often than accidents. *Touch wood*

Cheers
Santosh

[Opendro]

I absolutely agree, specially if the victim is still alive. Once my wife and I were in car, coming from Metur towards Mecheri, slightly up slope, in the night, around 9:30 PM. One biker was hit and was lying on the other side of the road. I wouldn't have noticed easily even though it was single lane. It was dark, I was on my left side. Then, a truck came completely head on me. Later, after the truck passed me, I was slow enough to notice a guy lying on the road on the other side. I could see a few bad tire screech marks ahead which means that another truck was also about to run over that guy and averted in the last moment. I knew that it was just a matter of time before another vehicle comes and runs over him without noticing him. So, we pulled the car to extreme side, put hazard light and had to guard him to warn traffic about the person lying. Bike was elsewhere. While calling ambulance, we also gathered a few folks, but decided not to move the person as his head was bleeding profusely and moving him without understanding the injury could aggravate the situation. Ambulance came soon after that.

Sometimes, it is not easy even to stop, considering the desolate location, late hour in the night and so on. But it is often safe to stop and help. I happen to belong to middle or upper middle class by luck. Else, I still fall in the lower class in heart! I even pick people en route a long drive if they ask for a short lift, specially if I happened to ask him the direction. Upper middle class Indians lose some of these Samaritan acts due to fear or a feeling of worthlessness, not necessarily bad in heart. But the people in lower strata will often help you, often not even expecting any favour in return, when your car gets stuck or fails to start or whatever. May be, being good is not a quality suitable for people who climb the ladder in this country. Sorry, a bit of digression. But I can't help but noticing this pattern.

On Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at 1:18:42 PM UTC+5:30, Chidambaran S( Chiddu) wrote: