In my last but previous post I had mentioned about carelessness and accidents. I missed to write about another problem that exists during accidents. The reaction of public during such accidents is very emotional and leads to further killings. The crowd sympathy is more towards the one who is badly injured than the one on who committed mistake. This is a stupid reaction and this should be stopped. I came across the following incident which was published in one of the Tamil weekly magazine.
An auto driver was on his usual trip in Chennai and suddenly saw a huge crowd in front of a lorry and a child lying underneath the front tyres badly injured. He also saw a man bleeding profusely being hit madly by the crowd and the injured man escaped from the crowd and rushed towards the auto for lift. The auto driver gave him lift and asked
“Do you guys think that you are driving a plane on sitting in the driver’s seat? Why can’t you be sensible? See you have run over an innocent child.”
The injured man replied “ Sir… looks like you have also mistaken me like the crowd. Please try to understand me. I am the father of the victim. The lorry driver sped away once he dashed on me and my child. I got into the Lorry and reversed the lorry to relieve my child who was caught underneath the tyres. The mad crowd thought that I am the lorry driver and have hit me so badly. I think if I had not escaped from them, they would have killed me. Please drop me in this hospital and bring my badly injured child quickly. Please bring the child soon… I shall wait here.”
This is the plight of those who are injured. The crowd behaves so madly and they hardly realise of the happenings. Even I have witnessed such mad crowds in the past.
My previous post about carelessness and accidents has received attention of few.
I am glad to let you know that there was a comment from someone by name Harman who has let me know about this organisation called Arrivesafe in India.
ArriveSafe is a project to preserve human life to make people get back home safe because we know roads can kill. Please visit http://www.arrivesafe.org/ for more useful information.
An auto driver was on his usual trip in Chennai and suddenly saw a huge crowd in front of a lorry and a child lying underneath the front tyres badly injured. He also saw a man bleeding profusely being hit madly by the crowd and the injured man escaped from the crowd and rushed towards the auto for lift. The auto driver gave him lift and asked
“Do you guys think that you are driving a plane on sitting in the driver’s seat? Why can’t you be sensible? See you have run over an innocent child.”
The injured man replied “ Sir… looks like you have also mistaken me like the crowd. Please try to understand me. I am the father of the victim. The lorry driver sped away once he dashed on me and my child. I got into the Lorry and reversed the lorry to relieve my child who was caught underneath the tyres. The mad crowd thought that I am the lorry driver and have hit me so badly. I think if I had not escaped from them, they would have killed me. Please drop me in this hospital and bring my badly injured child quickly. Please bring the child soon… I shall wait here.”
This is the plight of those who are injured. The crowd behaves so madly and they hardly realise of the happenings. Even I have witnessed such mad crowds in the past.
My previous post about carelessness and accidents has received attention of few.
I am glad to let you know that there was a comment from someone by name Harman who has let me know about this organisation called Arrivesafe in India.
ArriveSafe is a project to preserve human life to make people get back home safe because we know roads can kill. Please visit http://www.arrivesafe.org/ for more useful information.
7 comments:
Very true. Once, the bus I was travelling in grazed a pedestrian and the driver and conductor had to immediately flee the scene in a lorry that was going in the opposite direction leaving us passengers stranded. However all of us understood that that is what they should have done to save their skin.
Balaji, you have raised another pertinent and important issue.
In my opinion, nobody has the right to take law into own hands. Neither the rash drivers nor the crowds that gather.
We need to deal with situations sensibly and with great care. The only long term solution lies in educating our masses.
very true, also, one more point that U missed out i guess, it is public irresponsibility to take initiate first aid and calling ambulence. many pple lose their lives bcoz of these golden hours.
everybody worries abt court, FIR, and other formalities. :(
yes the crowd always finds fault with the one who has the biggest vehice. If its pedestrian or cyclist Vs Bike, they thrash the biker. if its car Vs bike, they thrash car driver and it goes on.
Most of the time the problem is on the pedestrian who carelessly crosses the road or jaywalks.
only in case of train the crowd wont blame the driver.
roads shld be treated as rail tracks and people should take all caution when walking in the road.
ECR which was good to travel in its initial stages is now a nightmare. Till golden beach u will see people walking in center of the road, cyclist taking abrupt turns, autos cutting u frm nowhere.
our people will never learn to abide traffic rules.
Arvindh - Everyone of us would have experienced a similar situation. Irrespective of the mistakes, the drivers will be the target for the crowd.
Kavi - Yes you are right. Nobody has the right to take law into own hands. I was personally involved with an accident, though it was not my fault and there were few witnesses to agree with it, there was only one person who was against me, just because of some previous animosity. He was intrumental in creating a mental trauma for me. Ofcourse, the truth cannot be hidden. The victim herself said that it was her fault and in no way I was connected to it than admitting her in hospital. Sometimes when we do something out of humanity, it causes problem for us.
Ambi - True. That is the most important point. I have seen one victime dying in front of me for not knowing what to do in such time.
Veda - Education should be at all levels. I think nowadays people are improving in their first reaction to such accidents.
Dany - The mob's behaviour is important. When we are in a mob, we lose thinking. Once a local EMU train was delayed for more than 10 mins. People were losing patience. I was the only one to go from first class compartment to see the station master. There was a mob already questioning the SM. Since they were not questioning properly, I thought of going in front to ask some sensible question. Suddenly one of them in the mob immediately broke the glasses of a window and the RPF grew wild and I understood that the situation was going out of control. I stood beside and started watching the mob. There were few youths who were just waiting for such a chance, and they started hitting the police, and smashing windows and damaging the public property. I knew few of them personally and they were very ordinary when they were alone. I was shocked to see their behaviour when they were as a mob. This is what I learnt on that day and came to a conclusion that human do not think when they are as a mob.
oh dear did the child survive? ure right on the mob mentality
There was no news about the child so far.
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