Fortis Malar Hospitals, Adyar, launched its Basic Life Support programme for autorickshaw drivers in the city on Tuesday.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M. Shakeel Akhter, who distributed certificates to some of the autorickshaw drivers, who had completed the course, said “Accidents trigger poverty. Many accident victims, who are unable to find money for treatment, seek the help of money lenders and are pushed into a debt trap.”
Every year in road accidents in the city 600 lives are lost, he said. In the entire State 12,000 people die every year in road accidents. The loss to property (in terms of the damage to the vehicles) was around Rs.10,000 crore every year in the country with insurance companies settling claims to the tune of Rs.4,000 crore, he said, at the function organised in the hospital.
Urging autorickshaw drivers to rush accident victims to the nearest hospital, he said that the police would not insist on their involvement in the legal proceedings related to the accident if they did not wish so. “It is important to save a life. It means you save a family and thereby contribute to society’s development. Autorickshaw drivers can act as a catalyst in changing the attitude of people,” he said.
K. Sridhar, Head of the Department of Neurosurgery and Nand Kumar Sundaram, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics, explained the first aid procedures to the participants.
In the first phase, 75 autorickshaw drivers from various auto stands, in and around Adyar, were given training on Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation and handling victims with broken limbs and bleeding injuries, according to the hospital authorities.
