Ambulances plying in the city will soon be fitted with sensors to activate traffic signals to let them pass through seamlessly.
The facility will allow ambulances to move freely at junctions to rush patients on time (within golden hour in case of accident, heart attack and stroke victims) for medical care, Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji said while addressing the Ambulance Priority Campaign launched by the traffic police recently.
“The city’s traffic has become insensitive towards the ambulance service by not allowing it to pass due to various reasons,” he observed.
Prank calls
Not only this, there are those who dial the toll-free ambulance service (108) to make prank calls. Pointing out that this showed people’s insensitivity towards the service, Mr. Mirji said people should allow ambulance to pass through and help save lives.
“Traffic violations will not be tolerated anymore. People argue with police personnel on duty, provoking them with irrelevant questions besides namedropping. They ask, ‘Do you know who my father is?’ To curb this menace, we are planning to take action against their fathers too, booking them for abetment,” Mr. Mirji said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.A. Saleem said that recently a man who suffered heart attack died at the NGEF junction on Old Madras Road when the ambulance, which was rushing him to Manipal Hospital, got stuck in a traffic jam. “His wife, who called up police requesting them to do something about insensitive motorists, prompted us to take up this initiative,” Mr. Saleem said.
Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari D. Veerendra Heggade, who is ambassador for the campaign, said the public — whether urban or rural — was generally illiterate when it came to traffic sense. He urged people to join hands with the police to save lives. “It’s a matter of a few seconds; please pull to the left side of the road to allow the ambulance to pass through.”
Life-saving skills
Meanwhile, BGS Global Hospital in association with Bangalore city traffic police has organised training programmes on basic life support for ambulance drivers and the Bangalore city traffic police. This is an ongoing programme conducted every week to train the target group by mid-December 2012 to help it deal with emergencies at accident sites.
Doctors from the hospital will use videos, practice demos, presentations and so on to impart these skills. Case scenarios will be discussed and simulated. The target group will be trained in safe handling and shifting techniques to avoid further injury to the victim, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) through chest compressions and so on.
Mr. Saleem said the traffic police and ambulance drivers were generally the first to reach a road accident site. One of the important responsibilities of a traffic policeman was to provide medical aid to the accident victims, he said.
Ashok Kumar, senior vice-president, BGS Global Hospitals, said if an accident victim was given life support and rushed to a hospital with established trauma care within the golden hour, eight out of 10 lives could be saved.
