In Kerala, road accidents soar but 'Good Samaritan' scheme stays on paper

Kochi: Kerala's roads see more than 40,000 accidents every year. Yet, the state has not rolled out a central government scheme designed to reward ordinary citizens who step forward to save lives.

Official sources said the programme, introduced in 2020 by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, was meant to encourage bystanders to rush accident victims to the hospital without fear of harassment. It was later renamed Rah-Veer after the government increased the cash reward earlier this year.

In 2021, the ministry directed all states to put the plan into action, calling it crucial for helping victims in the "golden hour" -- the first 60 minutes after an accident, when medical attention can make the difference between life and death. Initially, the reward was fixed at Rs 5,000 along with a certificate. In April this year, the Centre revised the amount to Rs 25,000 per case and also announced national awards of Rs 1 lakh each for 10 Good Samaritans annually.

According to the guidelines, rescuers are to be given an acknowledgement either by the police or the hospital, which must then be reviewed by a district appraisal committee headed by the District Collector. Based on its recommendation, the Transport Commissioner releases the reward. A state-level monitoring committee, under the Principal Secretary (Home), is tasked with overseeing the implementation.

However, despite these provisions, not a single person has been rewarded in Kerala over the past five years. The state government constituted a monitoring committee in March 2022 and reconstituted it on July 28 this year after the renaming of the scheme. But both the state- and district-level committees remain non-functional.

Kerala Transport Commissioner Nagaraju Chilakam admitted that the scheme is yet to take off. "It is a very good scheme. Unfortunately, we haven’t received any proposals from the district-level yet. I am not aware whether anyone has been rewarded under it," he told PTI. The Transport Commissioner stated that it is a reimbursement scheme in which the state initially provides a cash award, which is later reimbursed by the central government.

"Perhaps people at the ground level, especially in the health department and police, are unaware of the scheme. If implemented, it would certainly encourage people to provide immediate emergency care to accident victims," he added.

According to police data, 48,834 accidents were reported in Kerala last year, claiming 3,880 lives and injuring 54,796 people. Till July this year alone, 28,724 accidents have been reported, with 2,107 deaths and 32,569 persons injured. A district regional transport officer also said that hospital authorities or police have not reported about Good Samaritans. "There are district-level committees that exist even though they have not reported Good Samaritans yet. We haven't come across any case where the police issued an acknowledgment to a Good Samaritan who came under our review. In Kerala, people rush accident victims to hospitals, but due to their lack of awareness about the scheme, they never ask hospitals and police about the acknowledgment given as part of the scheme," the officer said.

Adding another dimension, former international car rally driver and road safety expert Upendra Narayan, who has worked with the Kerala and Tamil Nadu police, stressed that prevention should take precedence over post-accident rewards. "I know about the Good Samaritan project. But for me, prevention is better than cure. The best option is to prevent accidents rather than reward people after they occur," he said.

According to him, one of the key reasons for accidents is the mismatch between high-speed vehicles and Indian road design. "We have vehicles that can touch 200 km per hour, while our roads are designed for cruising at around 130 km per hour. Either the roads should be upgraded or vehicles rolled out should match our road specifications," he pointed out.

He also emphasised the need to integrate road safety into school education. "Students should be taught traffic rules and etiquette from a young age. They should be practically trained on how to walk and cross roads. Also, children should be encouraged to attend to accident victims. This alone can help reduce accidents and fatality by at least 40 per cent," Narayan said.