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If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

bbc.co.uk

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Re: If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

#2

Post by Gys »

tl;dr:

"The foremost reason was intimidation by police," he says. "Oftentimes if you assist someone the police will assume you're helping that person out of guilt." Apart from the fear of being falsely implicated, people also worried about becoming trapped as a witness in a court case - legal proceedings can be notoriously protracted in India. And if they helped the victim get to hospital, they feared coming under pressure to stump up fees for medical treatment.

Re: If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

#3

Post by inputjoker »

I would like to add one more issue to this. In India local roads are narrow and it is mostly two lane or 4 lane with heavy traffic blocks. Even if someone tried to carry someone to hospital,(op already has mentioned about the ambulance crisis, and don't even think about air ambulance), he/she will be met with roadblocks after roadblocks.

Re: If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

#7

Post by po »

jasode wrote: post #5

China also has similar culture of punishing good samaritans: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-year-old-hit-by-car-in-ch...

It's worse than that, the incentives are such that it's better to kill than maim: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2... (although this is apparently in question: http://www.snopes.com/chinese-drivers-kill-pedestrians/)

This is one of those subjects where people like to put moral consequences on the bystanders when it's the rules and larger structures of the society that matter.

Driving in India is completely insane and after about a week of white-knuckle driving you kind of just go with the flow and convince yourself that it must just work. While that is true the definition of it 'working' is totally unexpected for a westerner. Driving conditions are extremely adversarial and accidents are frequent. People are injured and die all the time. It's the kind of problem that absolutely needs to be solved at the regulatory/policy level.

Re: If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

#9

Post by Dylan16807 »

Gys wrote: post #2

tl;dr: "The foremost reason was intimidation by police," he says. "Oftentimes if you assist someone the police will assume you're helping that person out of guilt." Apart from the fear of being falsely implicated, people also worried about becoming trapped as a witness in a court case - legal proceedings can be notoriously protracted in India. And if they helped the victim get to hospital, they feared coming under pr…

You're missing the section at the end about hospitals refusing treatment when someone's brought in by a stranger that won't be paying.

Re: If no-one helps you after a car crash in India, this is why

#10

Post by williamstein »

po wrote: post #7
jasode wrote: post #5

China also has similar culture of punishing good samaritans: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-year-old-hit-by-car-in-ch...

It's worse than that, the incentives are such that it's better to kill than maim: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2... (although this is apparently in question: http://www.snopes.com/chinese-drivers-kill-pedestrians/ ) This is one of those subjects where people like to put moral consequences on the bystanders when it's the rules and larger structures of the society that matter. Driving in I…

Somebody did die while we were reading this article. According to the article "Fifteen people are killed every hour in road accidents in India".
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