SC seeks to protect those who help accident victims

Mumbai: Supreme Court has called for a ‘bottom-up approach’ to ensure a robust mechanism for trauma care, roping in all stakeholders including Good Samaritans, to save lives in road accidents. To improve efficiency, the SC has directed one unified number 112 for all emergency helplines across the country. Right to trauma care is an integral part of the right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution, said the SC bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Atul Chandurkar in a May 26 ruling.

The order came on a petition by NGO Savelife Foundation in 2024, which sought the court’s intervention to revamp emergency trauma care, bridge gaps, and set up grievance redressal systems to protect good Samaritans who assist accident victims. It cited studies to argue prompt care prevents deaths and delays contribute to a minimum 30% of fatalities.

A decade ago in the NGO’s earlier petition, the SC recognized the need for good Samaritan laws and in 2019 the Motor Vehicles Act was amended to introduce them. The NGO now sought orders to bridge systemic gaps including legal protection for those assisting accident victims, a rescue protocol for trauma care and a certified curriculum to train paramedics providing emergency treatment.

SC has now directed all States to establish functional (physical and digital) Good Samaritan Grievance Redressal Systems, with periodic compliance reports. The common man who is a bystander to such an incident has the responsibility to call emergency services and give them accurate descriptions, attempt to control bleeding, keep victims still, calm and warm,’’ the SC said. “Usually, however, no matter how strong the urge to be a Good Samaritan is, the bystander hesitates: suffers a reactive paralysis, sometimes due to fear of legal proceedings, of getting summoned to the police station as a witness…’’ the bench noted. The SC said, “what is required is a systemic intervention, creation of a uniform framework for trauma care, building public awareness, standardization of first aid skills and proper Good Samaritan laws.’’

SC also directed “integration of all emergency/ambulance helplines (100, 101, 108, 102, 1033, 1091, etc.) into helpline 112 within 3 months and wide publicity for it.

SC factored in submissions by attorney general P Venkatramani for the Centre and senior counsel Siddharth Luthra for the NGO and responses from 34 States and Union Territories. Steps vital include “quick response in the form of transportation, equipped with trained paramedics, as well as a healthcare facility well equipped to deal with urgent care,’’ it observed.

It said the Centre shall also issue guidelines for a Trauma Registry within eight weeks and all States/UTs are directed to establish State Trauma Registries in conformity, covering all medical facilities and linking them to a Coordinated Trauma Registry within a period of four months. SC also requested compliance reports and for the AG to then suggest a way for “efficient and effective implementation of trauma care’’ to espouse the cause in earnest.