There is a ray of hope for motorists in case of an accident. To save road accident victims from bleeding to death, a pool of 125 trained road safety volunteers will be deployed by the year-end across the district.
The volunteers being drawn predominantly from among autorickshaw drivers will be deployed under the scheme TRUST (Trauma Care and Road Safety Utility Service), a brainchild of Transport Commissioner Rishi Raj Singh, being implemented by the Motor Vehicles Department across the State.
“Autorickshaw drivers could prove critical in saving accident victims because they are mostly the first ones to reach accident spots during the golden hour (a crucial period lasting between a few minutes and several hours following traumatic injury during which a proper medical intervention raises the chances of saving life). But now the problem is that they are not trained in administering first aid or safely carrying the injured to hospitals. Even holding the victims the wrong way could aggravate injuries,” Adarshkumar G. Nair, joint RTO, North Paravur, and the district nodal officer of the project, told The Hindu .
The scheme has got good response from the auto drivers in the district ever since it was launched last week. So far, more than 80 drivers, a few of them taxi drivers, have registered with the MVD to be road safety volunteers. The details of the applicants will be forwarded to the police to verify their credentials. Those cleared would be roped in as volunteers, Mr. Nair said.
MVD is in the process of issuing 2,500-odd fresh city permits to autorickshaws. “The department will scout for volunteers among these drivers as well. Those willing would also be enlisted subjected to their clearance by the police,” Mr. Nair said.
Intensive three-day training has been planned for the enlisted drivers. The training sessions will cover a wide range of topics, including trauma care, road safety and traffic rules.
Those eventually selected as road safety volunteers will be issued special cards. “They can flash these cards at hospital while bringing in accident victims. These cards will spare them any kind of victimisation and ensure that they are not tied up in legal knots,” Mr. Nair said.
