After confirmation that Union Minister for Rural Development Gopinath Munde, who died here on Tuesday morning following a car accident here, was not wearing a seat belt, Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday claimed that “this simple safety precaution could have saved Mr. Munde’s life.”
“I lost my friend to a misconception where most people think that the back-seat belts serve only a decorative purpose. In fact, wearing them is as necessary as wearing front-seat belts. They can save lives in the event of impacts.”
“The damage to the Minister’s car wasn’t extensive, but the force of the throw-forward within the confined space of the car damaged the atlanto-axial joint in his neck, and severely injured the spinal cord. The blood vessels carrying blood supply to the brainstem (which is the seat of respiratory and cardiac centre) got disrupted and this became a cause for immediate cardiac and respiratory arrest. Besides, the liver was ruptured which caused profuse loss of blood,” informed Dr. Vardhan.
